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A  N 


E       S       S       A       Y 


O  N 


HISTORY; 

IN   THREE    EPISTLES   TO  EDWARD    GIBBON,  ESQ, 


WITH 


N  O  T  E         S, 


T»ic  ig-opidi   oiMiov  aiici.   Kxt  Xi^m'tJiov  f^fTa^fffScj. 

PoLYBius,  Lib.  ii. 


By     W  I  L  L  I  A  M      H  A  Y  L  E  Y,    E 


SO: 


THE     SECOND     EDITION. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED     FOR     J.    DODSLEY    IN    PALL-MALL. 

M.DCC.LXXXI. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Research  Library,  The  Getty  Research  Institute 


http://www.archive.org/details/essayonhistoryinOOhayl 


EPISTLE 


THE       FIRST. 


B 


ARGUMENT 

OF    THE    FIRST    EPISTLE. 

JntroduSiion. — Relation  between  Hijiory  and  Poetry — De- 
cline of  the  latter. — SubjcEi  of  the  prefent  Poem  Jlightly 
touched  by  the  Ancie?its. — Dionysius — Lucian. — hn- 
fortance  and  advantage  of  HiJlory — its  origin — fubfequent 
to  that  of  Poetry — difguifed  in  its  infancy  by  Prieflcraft 
and  Superflition — brought  from  Egypt  into  Greece.—— 
Scarcity  of  great  Hifiorians — PerfeSi  compoftion  not  to 
he  expelled. — Addrefs  to  HiJlory^  and  CharaSlers  of 
many  ancient  Hifiorians — Herodotus — Thucydides 
—  Xenophon  —  PoLYBius  —  Sallust  — LivY  —  Ta- 
citus.— Biography — Plutarch. — Baleful  influence  of 
defpotic  power  —  Ammianus  Marcellinus  —  Anna 
Comnena. 


EPISTLE         I. 


HI  G  H  in  the  world  of  Letters,  and  of  Wit, 
Enthroned  like  Jove,  behold  Opinion  fit  I 
As  fymbols  of  her  fway,  on  either  hand 
Th'  unfailing  urns  of  Praife  and  Cenfure  (land  *; 
Their  mingled  ftreams  her  motley  fervants  fhed  5 

On  each  bold  Author's  felf-devoted  head. 

On  thee,  O  Gibbon  !  in  whofe  fplendid  page 
Rome  fhines  majeftic  'mid  the  woes  of  age, 
Miftaken  Zeal,  wrapt  in  a  pricftly  pall, 
Has  from  the  bafer  urn  pour'd  darkeft  gall  :  lO 

Thefe  ilains  to  Learning  would  a  Bard  efface 
With  tides  of  glory  from  the  golden  vafe. 
But  that  he  feels  this  nobler  tafk  require 
A  fpirit  glowing  with  congenial  fire — 

*  Ver.  4.     See    N  O  T  E    I. 

B  2  A  Virgil 


[      4     ] 

A  Virgil  only  may  uncenfur'd  aim  15 

To  fing  in  equal  verfe  a  Livy's  fame: 

Yet  while  Polemics,  in  fierce  league  combin'd. 

With  fai^''age  difcord  vex  thy  feeling  mind; 

And  raflily  (lain  Religion's  juft  defence, 

By  grofs  dctradlion  and  pprverted  fenfe ;  2.0- 

Thy  wounded  eat ;iT^a}v haply  not  refufc 

The  foothing  acceius  oFan  humbler  Mufe. 
The  lovely  Science,  whofc  attractive  air 

Derives  new  charms  from  thy  devoted  care, 

Is  near  ally'd  to  that  enchanting  Art,  25" 

Which  reigns  the  idol  of  the  Poet's  heart. 

Tho'  fifter  GoddciTes,  thy  guardian  maid 

Shines  in  the  robe  of  freflicr  youth  array'd, 

Like  Pallas  recent  from  the  brain  of  Jove, 

When  Strength  with  Beauty  in  her  features  drove  j        30 

While  elder  FotCy,  in  every  clime 

The  flower  of  earlicfl:  fall,  has  paft  her  prime  : 

The  bloom,  which  her  autumnal  cheeks  fupply, 

Palls  on  the  Public's  philofophic  eye. 

What!  tho'  no  more  with  Fancy's  ftrong  controul  35 

Her  Epic  wonders  fafcinate  the  foul  j 

With 


[■5^    I 

With  humbler  hopes,  flie  vviilies  ftill  to  pleafe 

By  moral  elegaace,  and  labour'd  eafe : 

Like  other  Prudes,  leaves  Beauty's  loft  pretence, 

A'nd  drives  to  charm'  by  Sentiment  and  Senfe.  40 

Yet  deaf  to  Envy's  voice,,  and  Pride's  alarms, 

She  loves  the  rival,  who  eclips'dr. her  charms  ;- 

Safe  in  thy  favour,  fhe  would  fondly?' ftiw 

Round  the  wide  realm,  which  owns  that  Sifter's  fvvay. 

Sing  the  juft  fav'rites  of  hiftoric  fame,  a^ 

And  mark  their  pureft  laws  and  nobleft  aim.. 

My  eye&  witb  joy  this  pathlefs  field  explore,  - 
Crofs'd  by  no  Roman  Bard,  no  Greeks  of  vore-. 
Thofe  mighty  Lords  of  literary  fway 

H-ave  pafs'd  this  province  with  a  flight  furvey  :  c^) 

E'en  He,  whofe  bold  and  comprehenfive  mind- 
Immortal  rules  to  Poefy  affign'd. 
High  Prieft  of  Learning  !  has  not  fix'd  apart 
The  laws  and  limits  of  hiftoric  Art : 

Yet  one  excelling  *  Greek  in  later  days,  r*: 

The  happy  teacher  of  harmonious  phrafe, 

*  Ver.  5S'     See    NOTE    11. 


Whofe 


[     6    ] 

V/hofc  patient  fingers  all  the  threads  untwine, 

Which  in  the  myftic  chain  of  Mufic  join  ; 

Strict  DioNYsius,  of  fevereft  Tafte, 

Has  juftly  fome  hiftoric  duties  trac'd,  6o 

And  fome  pure  precepts  into  pradlice  brought, 

Th'  Hiftorian  proving  what  the  Critic  taught. 

And  *  LuciAN  !  thou,  of  Humour's  fons  fupremef 

Haft  touch'd  with  livelieft  art  this  tempting  theme. 

When  in  the  Roman  world,  corrupt  and  vain,  65 

Hiftoric  Fury  madden'd  every  brain  ; 

When  each  bafe  Greek  indulg'd  his  frantic  dream. 

And  rofe  a  f  Xenophon  in  felf-efteem  ; 

Thy  Genius  fatyriz'd  the  fcribbling  flave, 

And  to  the  liberal  pen  juft  leflbns  gave  :  70 

O  fkiird  to  feafon,  in  proportion  fit, 

Severer  wifdom  with  thy  fportive  wit  ! 

Breathe  thy  ftrong  power  !  thy  fprightly  grace  infufe 

In  the  bold  efforts  of  no  fervile  Mufe, 

If  fhe  tranfplant  fome  lively  flower,  that  throws  75 

Immortal  fweetnefs  o'er  thy  Attic  Profe  I 


*  Ver.  6j.     See    NOTE   III. 
t  Vcr.  68.     See    NOTE    IV. 


In 


E    7     ] 

In  Egypt  *  once  a  dread  tribunal  flood ; 
OiFspring  of  Wifdom  !  fource  of  Public  Good  1 
Before  this  Seat,  by  holy  Juftice  rear'd, 
The  mighty  Dead,  in  folemn  pomp,  appear'd  ;  8q 

For  'till  its  fentence  had  their  rights  expos'd, 
The  hallovv'd  portals  of  the  tomb  were  clos'd  ; 
A  fculptur'd  form  of  Truth  the  Judges  wore, 
A  facred  emblem  of  the  charge  they  bore  I 
The  claims  of  Virtue  their  pure  voice  expreft,  85: 

And  bade  the  opening  grave  receive  its  honor'd  guefl. 
Thus  awefully  array 'd  in  Judgment's  robe, 
With  powers  extenfive  as  the  peopled  Globe  ; 
To  her  juft  bar  impartial  Hift'ry  brings 
The  gorgeous  group  of  Statefmen,  Heroes,  Kings  ;        90 
With  all  whofe  minds,  out-lliining  fplendid  birth, 
Attrad  the  notice  of  th'  enlighten'd  earth. 
From  artful  Pomp  fhe  ftrips  the  proud  difguife 
That  flafh'd  delulion  in  admiring  eyes ; 
To  injur'd  Worth  gives  Glory's  wiOi'd  reward,  95 

And  blazons  Virtue  in  her  bright  record  : 

*  Vcr,  yy.     See    NOTE   V, 

3:  Nature's 


[-.    8     ] 

Nature's  clear  Mirror !  Life's  iaftrudive  Guide  ! 

Her  Wifdora  four'd  by  no  preceptive  Pride  ! 

Age  from  her  lefibn  forms  its  wifeft  aim, 

And  youthful  Emulation  fprings  to  Fame.  loo 

Yet  thus  adorn'd  with  noblefl  powers,  defign'd 
To  charm,  corred,  and  elevate  mankind. 
From  darkeil  Time  her  humble  Birth  fhe  drew, 
And  flowly  into  Strength  and  Beauty  grew ; 
As  mighty  ftreams,  that  roll  with  gather'd  force,         105 
Spring  feebly  forth  from  fome  fequefter'd  fource. 

The  fond  deiire  to  pafs  the  namcjefs  crowd. 
Swept  from  the  earth  in  dark  Oblivion's  cloud  ; 
Of  tranlient  life  to  leave  fome  little  trace. 
And  win  remembrance  from  the  rifmg  race,  no 

Led  early  Chiefs  to  make  their  prowefs  known 
By  the  rude  fymbol  on  the  artlcfs  ftone  : 
And,  long  ere  man  the  wondrous  fccret  found, 
To  paint  the  voice,  and  fix  the  fleeting  found, 
The  infant  Mufe,  ambitious  at  her  birth,  *  115 

Rofe  the  young  herald  of  heroic  vi'orth. 

•  Ver.  115.     See    NOTE   VI. 

10  The 


[     9     I 

The  tuneful  record  of  her  oral  praife, 

The  Sire's  atchievements  to  the  Son  conveys : 

Keen  Emulation,  wrapt  in  trance  fu'olime, 

Drinks  with  retentive  ear  the  potent  rhyme  ;  120 

And  faithful  Memory,  from  afFedion  ftrong. 

Spreads  the  rich  torrent  of  her  martial  fong. 

Letters  at  length  arife  ;  but  envious  Niaht 

Conceals  their  blefl:  Inventor  from  our  figrht. 

O'er  the  wide  earth  his  fpreading  bounty  flew,  125 

And  fwift  thofe  precious  feeds  of  Science  grew  ; 

Thence  quickly  fprung  the  Annal's  artlefs  frame. 

Time  its  chief  boafl !  and  brevity  its  aim  ! 

The  Temple- wall  preferv'd  a  fimple  date, 

And  mark'd  in  plainefl:  form  the  Monarch's  fate.  130 

But  in  the  center  of  thofe  vaft  abodes,  * 
Whofe  mighty  mafs  the  land  of  Egypt  loads  ; 
Where,  in  rude  triumph  over  years  unknown, 
Gigantic  Grandeur,  from  his  fpiry  throne, 
Seems  to  look  down  difdainful,  and  deride  135 

The  poor,  the  pigmy  toils  of  modern  Pride  ; 

*  Ver.  131.     See    NOTE    VII. 

C-  In 


[       10      ] 

In  the  clofe  covert  of  thofe  gloomy  cells, 

Where  early  Magic  fram'd  her  venal  fpells, 

Combining  priefts,  from  many  an  ancient  tale. 

Wove  for  their  hallow'd  ufe  Religion's  veil ;  140 

A  wondrous  texture  !  fupple,  rich,  and  broad, 

To  dazzle  Folly,  and  to  fhelter  Fraud  I 

This,  as  her  caeftus,  Superftition  wore ; 

And  faw  th'  enchanted  world  its  powers  adore : 

For  in  the  myftic  web  was  every  charm  145 

To  lure  the  timid,  and  the  bold  difarm  ; 

To  win  from  eafy  Faith  a  blind  efteem, 

And  lull  Devotion  in  a  laftins  dream. 

The  Sorcerefs,  to  fpread  her  empire,  dreft 

Hiftory's  young  form  in  this  illufive  veft,  150 

Whofe  infant  voice  repeated,  as  fhe  taught, 

The  motley  fables  on  her  mantle  wrought ; 

Till  Attic  Freedom  brought  the  Foundling  home 

From  the  dark  cells  of  her  Egyptian  dome  ; 

Drew  by  degrees  th'  oppreilive  veil  afldc,  15  c; 

And,  fhewing  the  fair  Nymph  in  nature's  pride, 

Taught  her  to  fpcak,  with  all  the  fire  of  youth, 

The  words  of  Wifdom  in  the  tone  of  Truth  ; 

10  To 


I 


i 


[  "  ] 

To  catch  the  paffing  fhew  of  public  life, 
And  paint  immortal  fcenes  of  Grecian  ftrife.  i6o 

Inchanting  Athens  !  oft  as  Learning  calls 
Our  fond  attention  to  thy  fofl'ring  walls, 
Still  with  freOi  joy  thy  glories  we  explore, 
With  new  idolatry  thy  charms  adore. 
Bred  in  thy  bofom,  the  Hiftorian  caught  165 

The  warmeft  glow  of  elevated  thought. 
Yet  while  thy  triumphs  to  his  eye  difplay, 
The  noblefl:  fcene  his  pencil  can  portray  ; 
While  thy  rich  language,  grac'd  by  every  Mufe, 
Supplies  the  brighteft  tints,  his  hand  can  ufe  ;  1 70 

How  fmall  their  band,  who,  in  thy  happier  days, 
Reach  the  bright  fummit  of  hiftoric  praife  1 
'Tis  thus  with  every  Art,  in  every  age. 
From  the  mechanic  to  the  moral  fage  : 
Excelling  merit  is  by  nature  rare  :  17  r 

Millions  contend  for  crowns  they  cannot  wear. 
Coy  Science,  in  her  fcene  of  vi^ide  command, 
Beftows  her  honours  with  a  fparing  hand. 
Like  Charlemain's  proud  hofl,  her  vafial  crew 
No  tongue  can  count — Her  paladins  are  few.  180 

C   2  Pure, 


[     la     ] 

Pure,  fauklefs  writing,  like  tranfnnited  gold, 
Mortals  may  wifli,  but  never  iliall  behold: 
Let  Genius  flill  this  glorious  objecft  own, 
And  fcek  Perfedion's  philofophic  Hone  ! 
For  while  the  mind,  in  ftudy's  toilfome  hours,  185 

Tries  on  the  long  refcarch  her  latent  powers, 
New  wonders  rife,  to  pay  her  patient  thought. 
Inferior  only  to  the  prize  flie  fought. 

But  idle  Pride  no  arduous  labor  fees. 
And  deems  th'  Hiflorian's  toil  a  tafk  of  eafe  :  igo 

Yet,  if  furvey'd  by  Judgment's  fteady  lamp. 
How  ^cw  are  juftly  grac'd  with  Glory's  ftamp  I 
Tho'  more  thefe  volumes,  than  the  ruthlefs  mind 
Of  the  fierce  Omar  to  the  flames  conlian'd,  * 
When  Learning  fiw  the  favage  with  a  fmile  19^5. 

Devote  her  offspring  to  the  blazing  pile  ! 

O  Hiftory  !  wliofe  pregnant  mi^es  impart 
Unfailingtreafures  to  poetic  art ; 
The  Epic  gem,  and  thofe  of  darker  hues,, 
Whofe  trembling  luftre  decks  the  tragic  Mufe  j  20a 


♦  Ver.  104.     See   NOTE    VIII. 


IT, 


'  [     13     ] 

If,  juftly  conlcious  of  thy  pov/ers,  I  raife 

A  votive  tablet  to  record  thy  praife,. 

That  ancient  temple  to  my  view  unfold. 

Where  thy  lirfl  Sons,,  on  Glory's  lift  enroU'd, 

To  Fancy's  eye,  in  living  forms,  appear,  205. 

And  fill  with  Freedom's  notes  the  raptur'd  ear  !  — 

The  dome  expands  I — Behold  th'  Hiftoric  Sire  1  * 

Ionic  rofes  mark  his  foft  attire  ; 

Bold  in  his  air,  but  graceful  in  his  mien- 

As  the  fair  figure  ot  his  favour' d  Queen,  f  210; 

When  her  proud  galley  fham'd  the  Perfian  van,    , 

And  grateful  Xerxes  own'd  her  more  than  man  ! 

Soft  as  the  ftream,  whofe  dimpling  waters  play,  t 
And  wind  in  lucid  lapfe  their  pleafing  wav, 
His.  rich,  Homeric  elocution  flows,.  21  5 

For  all  the  Mufes  modulate  his  profe  : 
Tho'  blind  Credulity  his  ftep  mifleads 
Thro'  the  dark  mifl:  of  her  Egyptian  meads, 
Yet  when  return'd,  with  patriot  paffions  warnij. 
He  paints  the  progrefs  of  the  Periian  ftorm,  220 

*  Vcr.  207.  Sfe  NOTE  IX. 
f  Ver.  210.  See  NOTE  X. 
j  Ver.  213.     See    NOTE    XI. 

In 


111  Truth's  illumin'd  field,  his  labours  rear 

A  trophy  worthy  of  the  S.partan  fpear  : 

His  eager  country,  in  th'  Olympic  vale, 

Throngs  with  proud  joy  to  catch  the  martial  tale. 

Behold!  where  Valour,  refting  on  his  lance,  225 

Drinks  the  fweet  found  in  rapture's  filent  trance, 

Then,  with  a  grateful  fliout  of  fond  acclaim. 

Hails  the  juft  herald  of  his  country's  fame  ! — 

But  mark  the  Youth,  in  dumb  delight  immers'd  !  * 

See  the  proud  tear  of  emulation  burft  !  230 

O  faithful  fign  of  a  fuperior  foul  I 

Thy  prayer  is  heard  : — 'tis  thine  to  reach  the  goal. 

Seel  bleft  Olorus  !  fee  the  palm  is  won  ! 

Sublimity  and  Wifdom  crown  thy  Son  : 

His  the  rich  prize,  that  caught  his  early  gaze,  235 

Tir  eternal  treafure  of  increafing  praife  ! 

Pure  from  the  ftain  of  favor,  or  of  hate. 

His  nervous  line  unfolds  the  deep  Debate  ; 

Explores  the  feeds  of  War ;  with  matchlefs  force 

Draws  Difcord,  fpringing  from  Ambition's  fourcc,       240 


*  Ver.  229.     See    NOTE   XII. 


With 


r  '5  I 

With  all  her  Demagogues,  who  murder  Peace, 

In  the  fierce  ftruggles  of  contentious  Greece. 

Stript  by  Ingratitude  of  jufl  command — 

Above  refentment  to  a  thanklefs  land, 

Above  all  envy,  rancour,  pride,  and  fpleen,  245 

In  exile  patient,  in  difgrace  ferene, 

And  proud  to  celebrate,  as  Truth  infpires, 

Each  patriot  Hero,  that  his  foul  admires — 

The  deep-toa'd  trumpet  of  renown  he  blows. 

In  fage  retirement  'mid  the  Thracian  fnows.  250 

But  to  untimely  {ilence  Fate  devotes 

Thofe  lips,  yet  trembling  with  imperfect  notes-,. 

And  bafe  Oblivion  threatens  to  devour 

Ev'n  this  firft  oiFspring  of  hiftoric  power.. 

A  generous  guardian  of  a  rival's  fame,  *  25  c 

Mars  the  dark  Fiend  in  this  malignant  aim  : 

Accomplifh'd  Xenophon  !  thy  truth  has  jQiewn 

A  brother's  glory  facred  as  thy  own  : 

O  rich  in  all  the  blended  gifts,  that  grace 

Minerva's  darling  fons  of  Attic  face  !  260 


•  Ver.255.     See    NOTE   XIII. 


The 


[     i6     ] 

The  Sage's  olive,  the  Hillorlan's  palm, 

The  Vigor's  laurel,  all  thy  name  embalm  ! 

Thy  iimplc  didion,  free  from  glaring  art. 

With  fweet  allurement  ileals  upon  the  heart ; 

Pure,  as  the  rill,  that  Nature's  hand  refines,  265 

A  cloudlefs  mirror  of  thy  foul  it  (liines. 

Two  pafllons  there  by  Toft  contention  pleafe. 

The  love  of  martial  Fame,  and  learned  Eafe  : 

Thefe  friendly  colours,  exquifitely  join'd, 

Form  the  enchanting  piclure  of  thy  mind.  270 

Thine  was  the  praiie,  bright  models  to  afford 

To  Cesar's  rival  pen,  and  rival  fword  : 

Blcil,  had  Ambition  not  deftroy'd  his  claim 

To  the  mild  luftre  of  thy  purer  fame  ! 

Thou  pride  of  Greece  I  in  thee  her  triumphs  end  :       275 

And  Roman  chiefs  in  borrowed  pomp  afcend. 

Rome's  haughty  genius,  who  enflav'd  the  Greek,  * 

In  Grecian  language  deigns  at  hrH:  to  fpeak  : 

By  flow  degrees  her  ruder  tongue  fhe  taught 

To  tell  the  wonders  that  her  valour  wrought ;  280 


*  Vcr.  277.     See    NOTE    XIV. 


And 


[     '7     3 

And  her  hiftoric  hoft,  with  envious  eye, 
View  in  their  glittering  van  a  Greek  ally. 
Thou  Friend  of  SciPio  !  vers'd  in  War's  alarms !  * 
Torn  from  thy  wounded  country's  ftruggling  arms ! 
And  doom'd  in  Latian  bofoms  to  inftill  285 

Thy  moral  virtue,  and  thy  martial  (kill  ! 
Pleas'd,  in  refearches  of  elaborate  length, 
To  trace  the  fibres  of  the  Roman  flrength ! 
O  highly  perfed  in  each  nobler  part, 
The  Sage's  wifdom,  and  the  Soldier's  art  I  290 

This  richer  half  of  Grecian  praife  is  thine  : 
But  o'er  thy  ftyle  the  flighted  Graces  pine, 
And  tir'd  Attention  toils  thro'  many  a  maze. 
To  reach  the  purport  of  thy  doubtful  phrafe : 
Yet  large  are  his  rewards,  whofe  toils  engage  295 

To  clear  the  fpirit  of  thy  cloudy  page  ; 
Like  Indian  fruit,  its  rugged  rind  contains 
Thofe  milky  fweets  that  pay  the  fearcher's  pains. 
Rome's  haughty  Genius,  with  exulting  claim, 
Points  to  her  rivals  of  the  Grecian  name  !  300 

*  Ver.  283.     See    NOTE    XV. 

D  Sententious 


[     '8     ] 

Sententious  Sallust  leads  her  lofty  train ;  * 

Clear,  tho'  concile,  elaborately  plain, 

Foiling  his  fcale  of  words  with  frugal  care. 

Nor  leaving  one  fuperfluous  atom  there  1 

Yet  well  difplaying,  in  a  narrow  fpace,  305 

Truth's  native  ftrength,  and  Nature's  eafy  grace ;, 

Skill'd  to  deted,  in  tracing  Anion's  courfe, 

The  hidden  motive,  and  the  human  fource. 

His  lucid  brevity  the  palm  has  won. 

By  Rome's  deciiion,  from  Olorus'  Son.  3^10 

Of  mightier  fpirit,  of  majeftic  frame. 
With  powers  proportion'd  to  the  Roman  fame, 
When  Rome's  fierce  Eagle  his  broad  wings  unfurl'd, 
And  fnadow'd  with  his  plumes  the  fubjecl:  v/orld, 
In  bright  pre-eminence,  that  Greece  might  own,         315 
Sublimer  Livy  claims  th'  Hiftoric  throne;  f 
With  that  rich  Eloquence,  whofe  golden  light 
Brings  the  full  fcene  diftindly  to  the  fight  ; 
That  Zeal  for  Truth,  which  Intereft  cannot  bend, 
That  Fire,  which  Freedom  ever  gives  her  friend.         320 

•  Vtr.  301.     See    NOTE    XVI. 
tVcr.  316.      See     NOTE    XVH. 

7  Immortal 


[     19     ] 

Immortal  artift  of  a  work  fupreme  ! 

Delighted  Rome  beheld,  with  proud  efteem, 

Her  own  bright  image,  of  ColoiTal  fize, 

From  thj  long  toils  in  pureft  marble  rife. 

But  envious  Time,  with  a  malignant  ftroke,  325 

This  facred  ftatue  into  frao;ments  broke  ; 

In  Lethe's  flream  its  nobler  portions  funk, 

And  left  Futurity  the  wounded  trunk. 

Yet,  like  the  matchlefs,  mutilated  frame,  * 

To  which  great  Angelo  bequeath'd  his  name,  330 

This  glorious  ruin,  in  whofe  ftrength  we  find 

The  fplendid  vigour  of  the  Sculptor's  mind, 

In  the  fond  eye  of  Admiration  ftill 

Rivals  the  finifli'd  forms  of  modern  Hall. 

Next,  but,  O  LivY  !  as  unlike  to  thee,  3315 

As  the  pent  river  to  th'  expanding  fea, 
Sarcaftic  Tacitus,  abrupt  and  dark,  f 
In  moral  angler  forms  the  keen  remark  : 
Searching  the  foul  with  microfcopic  power. 
To  mark  the  latent  worm  that  mars  the  flower.  340 

*  Ver.  329.     See    NOTE    XVIII. 
fVer.  337.     See    NOTE   XIX. 

D   2  His 


[       2°      ] 

His  Roman  voice,  in  bafe  degenerate  days,  : 

Spoke  to  Imperial  Pride  in  Freedom's  praife  ;. 

And  with  indignant  hate,  feverely  warm, 

Shew'd  to  gigantic  Guilt  his  ghaftly  form  ! 

There  are,  whofe  cenfures  to  his  Style  aiTign  34.5: 

A  fubtle  fpirir,  rigid  and  malign  ; 

Which  magnified  each  monfter  that  he  drew, 

And  gave  to  darkefl  vice  a  deeper  hue :. 

Yet  his  ftrong  pencil  {hews  the  gentlefl  heart, 

In  one  fweet  fketch  of  Biographic  art,  350 

Whofe  fofteft  tints,  by  filial  love  combin'd. 

Form  the  pure  image  of  his  Father's  mind. 

O  bleft  Biography  !  thy  charms  of  yore 
Hiftoric  Truth  to  ftrong  Affedlion  bore. 
And  fofl'ring  Virtue  gave  thee  as  thy  dower,  355 

Of  both  thy  Parents  the  attractive  power ; 
To  win  the  heart,  the  wavering  thought  to  fix, 
And  fond  delight  with  wife  inftrudtion  mix. 
Firft  of  thy  votaries,  peerlefs,  and  alone. 
Thy  Plutarch  fliines,  by  moral  beauty  known:  *      360 


«    V, 


Ver.  360.     See    NOTE    XX. 
JO  Enclianting 


Enchanting  Sage !  whofe  living  leflbns  teach, 

What  heights  of  Virtue  human  eiForts  reach. 

Tho'  oft  thy  Pen,  eccentrically  wild, 

Ramble,  in  Learning's  various  maze  beguil'd  ; 

Tho'  in  thy  Style  no  brilliant  graces  fhine,  365 

Nor  the  clear  conduct  of  correal  Deiign, 

Thy  every  page  is  uniformly  bright 

With  mild  Philanthropy's  diviner  light. 

Of  gentleft  manners,  as  of  mind  elate, 

Thy  happy  Genius  had  the  glorious  fate  370 

To  regulate,  with  Wifdom's  foft  controul, 

The  ftrong  ambition  of  a  Trajan's  foul. 

But  O  !  how  rare  benignant  Virtue  fprings. 

In  the  blank  bofom  of  defpotic  kings  ! 

Thou  bane  of  liberal  Knowledge  !  Nature's  curfe!  375: 
Parent  of  Mifery  !  pamper'd  Vice's  nurfe  ! 
Thou  who  canft  bind,  by  thy  petrific  breath, 
The  foul  of  Genius  in  the  trance  of  death  ! 
Unbounded  Power  !  beneath  thy  baleful  fway. 
The  voice  of  Hift'ry  finks  in  dumb  decay.  380 

Still  in  thy  gloomy  reign  one  martial  Greek, 
In  Rome's  corrupted  language  dares  to  fpeak ; 

Mild 


I  "  ] 

Mild  MARCiiLLiNus  !  free  from  fervile  awe  I  * 

A  faithrul  painter  of  the  woes  he  faw  ; 

Forc'd  by  the  meannefs  of  his  age  to  join  ,         385 

Adulterate  Colours  with  his  juft  Defign  I 

The  flighted  Attic  Mufe  no  more  fupplies 

Her  pencil,  dipt  in  Nature's  pureft  dies  ; 

And  Roman  Emulation,  at  a  ftand. 

Drops  the  blurr'd  pallet  from  her  palfy'd  hand.  390 

But  while  Monadic  Night,  with  gathering  fhades, 
The  ruin'd  realm  of  Hiftory  invades  ; 
While,  pent  in  Constantine's  ill-fated  walls, 
The  mancrled  form  of  Roman  Grandeur  falls  ; 
And,  like  a  Gladiator  on  the  fand,  395 

Props  his  faint  body  with  a  dying  hand  ; 
While  favage  Turks,  or  the  fierce  Sons  of  Thor, 
Warrc  on  the  Arts  a  wild  Titanian  war  ; 
While  manly  Knowledge  hides  his  radiant  head, 
As  Jove  in  terror  from  the  Titans  fled  ;  400 

See  !  in  the  lovely  charms  of  female  youth, 
A  fecond  Pallas  p-uards  the  throne  of  Truth  ! 


*  Vcr.  383.     See   NOTE   XXI. 


And, 


[     *3     ] 

And,  with  Comnena's  royal  name  impreft,  '^ 

The  zone  of  Beauty  binds  her  Attic  ve&.i 

Fair  ftar  of  \7ifdom  1  whofe  unrival'd  light  405 

Breaks  thro*  the  fiormy  cloud  of  thickeft  night  ; 

Tho'  in  the  purple  of  proud  mifery  nurfl, 

From  thofe  oppreffive  bands  thy  fpirit  burft  ; 

Pleas'd,  in  thy  public  labours,  to  forget 

The  keen  domeftic  pangs  of  fond  regret  !  410 

Pleas'd  to  preferve,  from  Time's  deftruAive  rage, 

A  Father's  virtues  in  thy  faithful  page  ! 

Too  pure  of  foul  to  violate,  or  hide 

Th''Hifl:orian's  duty  in  the  Daughter's  pride  ! 

Tho'  bafe  Oblivion  long  with  envious  hand  415 

Hid  the  fair  volume  which  thy  virtue  plann'd,. 

It  iliines,  redeem'd  trom  Ruin's  darkeft  hour, 

A  wond'rous  monument  oi  Female  power ; 

While  confcious  Hift'ry,  careful  of  thy  fame, 

Ranks  in  her  Attic  band  thy  filial  name,  420 

And  fees,  on  Glory's  Rage,  thy  graceful  mien 

Clofe  the  long  triumph  or  her  ancient  fccne  ■ 
*  Yen  403.     See  NOTE   XXII. 

END   OF    THE    FIRST    EPISTLE. 

EPISTLE 


•rr.: 


EPISTLE 


THE       SECOND. 


Sunt  et  alii  Scriptores  boni :  fed  nos  genera  deguflamus,  noii 
bibliothecas  excutimus.  Quintil.  Lib.  x. 


E 


ARGUMENT 

OF    THE    SECOND    EPISTLE. 

Defe&s  of  the  Monkijh  Hijiorians — our  obligations  to  the 
heji  of  them. — Co?itrafi  between  two  of  the  mof  fabulous y 
and  two  of  the  mof  rational. — hidulgence  due  to  Writers 
of  the  dark  Ages. — Arabians — Abulfeda — Bohaddin, 
— Slow  Progrefs  of  the  huma7i  Mind.  —  Chivalry. — 
Froissart. — Revival  of  ancient  Learning  under  Leo  X. 

ii/y/?Or/^«j/«//^/j;,MACHIAVEL,GuiCCIARDINjDAVILA, 

and  Father  Paul — in  Portugal^  Osorius — in  Spain^ 
Mariana — in  Holland^  Grotius — in  France^  Thuanus. 
— Praife  of  Toleration. — Voltaire. — Addrefs  to  Eng- 
land.— Clarendon — Burnet — Rapin — Hume — Lyt- 
TELTON.  —  Reafon  for  not  ottempti7ig  to  defcribe  any 
livi?2g  Hifloria?t. 


EPISTLE        II. 


AS  eager  Foililifts  with  ardour  pore 
On  the  flat  margin  of  the  pebbled  fliorc, 
Hoping  fome  curious  Shell,  or  Coral-root, 
Will  pay  the  labours  of  their  long  purfuit ; 
And  yield  their  hand  the  pleafure  to  difplay  5 

Nature's  neglected  Gems  in  nice  array  : 
So,  Gibbon  !  toils  the  mind,  whofe  labour  wades 
Thro'  the  dull  Chronicle's  monaftic  fhades, 
To  pick  from  that  drear  coaft,  with  learned  care, 
New  fliells  of  Knowledge,  thinly  fcatter'd  there  ;  lo 

Who  patient  hears,  while  cloifter'd  Dullnefs  tells 
The  lying  legend  of  her  murky  cells  j 
Or  ftrangely  mingles,  in  her  phrafe  uncouth, 
Difguiling;  Lies  with  unimportant  Truth  : 

E   2  How 


[     =8     ] 

How  Bidiops  give  (each  tort'ring  Fiend  o'erconie)         15 

X-ife  to  the  faint,  and  language  to  the  dumb : 

How  Tainted  Kings  renounce,  with  holy  dread,  * 

The  chafte  endearments  ot  their  marriage-bed  : 

How  Nuns,  entranc'd,  to  joys  celeftial  mount,  -j- 

Frantic  with  rapture  from  a  facred  fount :  20 

How  cunning  Priefts  their  dying  Lord  cajole, 

And  take  his  riches  to  enfure  his  foul  : 

While  he  endows  them,  in  his  pious  will. 

With  thofe  choice  gifts,  the  Meadow  and  the  Mill,  % 

They  wifely  chronicle  his  Spirit's  health,  25 

And  o-ive  him  Virtue  in  return  for  Wealth. 

So  Hifl'ry  finks,  by  Hypocrites  depreft. 

In  the  coarfc  habit  of  the  cloifter  drefl ; 

When  her  weak  Sons  that  noxious  air  imbibe. 

Such  are  the  tales  of  their  monaftic  tribe  !  30 

But  let  not  Pride,  with  blind  contempt,  arraign 
Each  early  Writer  in  that  humble  train  ! 
No  !  let  the  Mufe,  a  friend  to  every  claim. 
That  marks  the  Candidate  for  honeft  fame, 

»  Vcr.  17.     See    NOTE    I. 
+  Ver.  19.     See    NOTE    IF. 
X  Vcr.  24.     See    NOTE   111. 


[     29     ] 

Be  juft  to  patient  Worth,  feverely  funk,  35 

And  paint  the  merits  of  the  modeft  Monk  ! 

Ye  purer  minds  !  who  ftopt,  with  native  force, 
Blind  Ignorance  in  his  barbarian  courfe  ; 
Who,  in  the  field  of  Hifl'ry,  dark  and  wafte, 
Your  fimple  path  with  fteady  patience  trac'd  ;  40 

Bleft  be  your  labours  !  and  your  virtues  bleft  ! 
Tho'  paid  with  infult,  and  with  fcorn  oppreft. 
Ye  refcu'd  Learning's  lamp  from  total  night. 
And  fav'd  with  anxious  toil  the  tremblino-  licrht. 
In  the  wild  ftorm  of  that  tempefluous  time,  45 

When  Superftition  cherifn'd  every  crime; 
When  meaner  Prielts  pronounc'd  with  falt'ring  tongue. 
Nor  knew  to  read  the  jargon  which  they  fung  ; 
When  Nobles,  traiii'd  like  blood-hounds  to  deftroy. 
In  ruthlefs  rapine  plac'd  their  fivage  joy  ;  50 

And  Monarchs  wanted  ev'n  the  {kill  to  frame 
The  letters  that  compos'd  their  mighty  name. 
How  ftrong  the  mind,  that,  try'd  by  ills  like  thefe, 
Could  write  untainted  with  the  Time's  difcafe  ! 
That,  free  from  Folly's  lie,  and  Fraud's  pretence,         55 
Could  rife  to  fimple  Truth,  and  fober  Senfe  ! 

9  Such 


(     30     ] 

Such  minds  exiftcd  in  the  darkeft  hour 
Of  blind  Barbarity's  debafing  power. 

If  mitred  Turpin  told,  in  wiideft  drain,  * 
Of  giant-feats  atchiev'd  by  Charlemajn  ;  60 

Of  fpears,  that  bloffom'd  like  the  flowery  thorn, 
Of  Roland's  magic  fvvord,  and  ivory  horn, 
Whofe  found  was  wafted  by  an  angel's  wing, 
In  notes  of  anguifh,  to  his  diftant  king  ; 
Yet  modcft  ^ginhard,  with  grateful  care,  f  65 

In  purer  colours,  and  with  Nature's  air, 
Has  drawn  diftindly,  in  his  clear  record, 
Ajufter  portrait  of  this  mighty  Lord, 
Whofe  forceful  lance,  againft  the  Pagan  hurl'd. 
Shone  the  bright  terror  of  a  barbarous  world.  70 

Nor  on  his  mafter  does  he  idly  fhower 
The  prieftly  gifts  of  fupcrnat'ral  Power : 
This  candid  Scribe  of  Gratitude  and  Truth, 
Corredly  paints  the  Patron  of  his  youth, 
Th'  imperial  Savage,  whofe  unletter'd  mind  75 

Was  adtive,  ftrong,  beneficent,  and  kind  ; 


•  Vcr.  59.     See    NOTE    IV. 
i"  Ver.  65.     See    NOTE    V. 


Who, 


[     31     ] 

Who,  tho'  he  lov'd  the  Learned  to  requite, 
Knew  not  that  fimpleft  art,  the  art  to  write. 

If  Britifh  Geffrey  fiU'd  his  motley  page  * 
With  Merlin's  fpells,  and  Uther's  amorous  rage  ;        So 
With  fables  from  the  field  of  Magic  glean'd, 
Giant  and  Dragon,  Incubus  and  Fiend  ; 
Yet  Life's  great  drama,  and  the  Deeds  of  men. 
Sage  Monk  of  Malm'fbury  !  engag'd  thy  pen.  f 
Nor  vainly  doft  thou  plead,  in  modeft  phrafe,  85 

Thy  manly  paffion  for  ingenuous  praife  : 
'Twas  thine  the  labours  of  thy  Sires  to  clear 
From  Fidion's  harden'd  fpots,  with  toil  fevere  -y 
To  form,  with  eyes  intent  on  public  life. 
Thy  bolder  fketches- of  internal  ftrife  ;  9'-^ 

And  warmly  celebrate,  with  love  refin'd. 
The  rich  endowments  of  thy  Glo'ster's  mind  ; 
May  this,  thy  Praife,  the  Monkiih  pen  exempt 
From  the  ungenerous  blame  of  blind  Contempt  ! 

Tho'  Truth  appear  to  niake  thy  works  her  care,        95 
The  lurking  Prodigy  ftill  lingers  there  : 


*  Ver.  79.     See    NOTE    VI. 
tVer.  84.     See   NOTE    VIL 
iO 


But 


[       32       ] 

But  let  not  ccnfure  on  tKy  name  be  thrown 

For  errors,  fpringing  from  thy  age  alone ! 

Shame  on  the  Critic  !  who,  with  idle  fcorn, 

Depreciates  Authors,  in  dark  periods  born,  lOO 

Who  chance  to  want,  irregularly  bright, 

That  equal  Knowledge,  and  that  fteadier  Light, 

Which  Learning,  in  its  full  meridian  power, 

Has  richly  lavifli'd  on  his  happier  hour  ! 

Where  martial  tribes  a  warlike  Defpot  own,  105 

And  civil  Freedom  is  a  blifs  unknown, 
Ln  cafual  iits  of  intermitted  ftrife. 
The  Arts  are  fummon'd  into  tranlient  life : 
The  royal  mind  fupplies  the  quick'ning  ray, 
And  Science  feems  the  infe(5t  of  a  day.  no 

Mark  the  fierce  fons  of  many  a  flivage  horde, 
That  from  her  fertile  wilds  Arabia  pour'd  ! 
Behold  them,  as  they  range  the  fubject  earth, 
Now  fcifle  Knowledge,  and  now  give  it  birth  ! 
In  Syrian  Harrjah,  lo  !  a  Prince  prefides,  115 

Wi  of.  faithful  hand  the  pen  of  Hi  ft' ry  guides: 
Mild  Ap.ui.Fr.DA  !  whoic  rich  merits  claim  * 
No  fin'j^lc  wreath  of  literary  Fame  : 

*  Vcr.  11;.     See    NOTE    VIII. 

The 


[     33     ] 

The  regions  he  defcrib'd,  his  talents  boaft, 

And  Eaftern  Poets  rank  him  in  their  hoft.  120 

In  different  climes  behold  an  Arab  Lord 

Crufh  the  fair  Art  his  brutal  foul  abhorr'd ! 

And  with  that  vidlim's  blood  his  fabre  ftain,  * 

Who  dar'd  to  write  the  annals  of  his  reign  ! 

Yet  in  the  land,  that  faw  this  favage  deed,  125 

Arabian  Science  gain'd  her  richeft  meed  : 

There  Corduba,  in  hours  of  happier  fate,  f 

Sublimely  rofe  in  academic  flate, 

Alike  for  Gallantry  and  Learning  known, 

Afylum  of  the  Arts,  and  Valour's  throne  !  J  30 

Ye  turrets  crefcent-crown'd  !  the  prey  of  Time  1 

Brio-ht  fcenes  !  that  ecchoed  with  Arabian  rhyme ; 

Ere  yet  Oblivion's  hateful  curtain  falls 

On  the  faint  fplendor  of  your  proftrate  walls. 

May  fome  juft  hand  your  hidden  wealth  explore,         135 

The  laurel  to  your  lettcr'd  Chiefs  reftore. 

To  all  your  pomp  a  new  exiftence  give, 

A.nd  bid  your  glories  in  defcription  live  1 

*  Ver.  123.     See    NOTE   IX. 
tVer.  127.     See    NOTE   X. 

F  The 


C     34     ] 

The  daring  Moor,  tho'  robb'd  of  Freedom's  rays, 
Glow'd  with  the  noble  avarice  of  praife  ;  14.® 

Keen  as  an  Attic  mind  in  Fame's  purfuit, 
He  fliook,  from  Labour's  tree,  that  golden  fruit. 

Of  all  the  heroes  of  the  Moflem  line, 
Triumphant  Saladin  1  'twas  chiefly  thine 
To  cherifli,  in  thy  fcenes  of  bloody  ftrife,  145 

A  juft  Encomiaft  of  thy  fplendid  life  ; 
Thy  warm  Bohaddin,  with  that  generous  zeal,  * 
Which  no  bafe  fons  of  Adulation  feel. 
At  large  delineates,  with  hiftoric  Art, 
Thy  bold,  intrepid  mind,  thy  gentle  heart.  15a 

Tho'  in  his  portrait,  which  reveals  the  Friend, 
The  tints  of  Truth  with  thofe  of  Fondnefs  blend. 
The  pidure,  finifh'd  on  no  fervile  plan. 
Gives  to  our  view  the  hero,  and  the  man. 
Afflidion  fpeaks,  all  abjed:  aims  above  ;  135 

The  tender  Servant  in  the  Scribe  we  love. 
Who  fhrinks,  difabled  by  the  gufhing  tear, 
From  his  laft  duty  to  a  Lord  fo  dear. 


*  V, 


Ver.  147.     Sec    NOTE    XI. 


Yot, 


I    35     1 

Yet,  tho'  his  bofom,  touch'd  with  manly  grie^ 

Shar'd  the  mild  virtue  of  his  feeling  Chief,  i6o 

His  page  betrays  the  bigot  of  the  Eaft, 

And  lavifli  execrations  mark  the  Prieft. 
In  all  its  various  paths,  the  human  Mind 

Feels  the  firft  efforts  of  its  ftrength  confin'd ; 

And  in  the  field,  where  Hiftory's  laurels  grow,  165 

Winds  its  long  march  with  lingering  ftep  and  flow  : 

Like  Fruit,  whofe  tafte  to  fweet  luxuriance  runs 

By  conftant  fuccour  from  autumnal  funs, 

This  lovely  Science  ripens  by  degrees. 

And  late  is  faftiion'd  into  graceful  eafe»  170 

In  thofe  enlivening  days,  when  Europe  rofe 
From  the  long  preiTure  of  lethargic  woes  ; 
When  the  Provencal  lyre,  with  rofes  dreft, 
By  ardent  Love's  extatic  fingers  preft, 
Wak'd  into  life  the  Genius  of  the  Weft;  ^75j 

When  Chivalry,  her  banners  all  unfurl'd, 
Fiird  with  heroic  fire  the  fplendid  world  ; 
In  high-plum'd  grandeur  held  her  gorgeous  reign, 
And  rank'd  each  brilliant  Virtue  in  her  train  ; 
When  fhe  imparted,  by  her  magic  glove,  180 

To  Honour  ftrength,  and  purity  to  Love ; 

F   2  New- 


I  36  ] 

New-moiilded  Nature  on  her  nobleft  plan, 

And  gave  frefh  finews  to  the  foul  of  man : 

When  the  chief  model  of  her  forming  hand, 

Our  fable  Edward,  on  the  Gallic  ftrand,  185 

Difplay'd  that  fpirit  which  her  laws  beftow, 

And  fhone  the  idol  of  his  captive  foe  : 

Unbleft  with  Arts,  th'  unletter'd  age  could  yield 

No  fkilful  hand,  to  paint  from  Glory's  field 

Scenes,  that  Humanity  with  pride  muft  hear,  190 

And  Admiration  honour  with  a  tear. 

Yet  Courtefy,  with  generous  Valour  joinM, 
Fair  Twins  of  Chivalry  !  rejoic'd  to  find 
A  faithful  Chronicler  in  plain  Froissart  ;  * 
More  rich  in  honefty  than  void  of  art.  195 

As  the  young  Peafant,  led  by  fpirits  keen 
To  fome  great  city's  gay  and  gorgeous  fcene, 
Returning,  with  increafe  of  proud  delight, 
Dwells  on  the  various  fplendor  of  the  fight ; 
And  gives  his  tale,  tho'  told  in  terms  uncouth,  200 

The  charm  of  Nature,  and  the  force  of  Truth, 
Tho'  rude  engaging  j  fuch  thy  fimplc  page 

Seems,  O  Froissart  !  to  this  enlighten'd  age. 

*  Ver.  194.     See    NOTE  XII. 

Proud 


'[     37     ] 

Proud  of  their  fpirit,  in  thy  writings  ihevvn, 

Fair  Faith  and  Honour  mark  thee  for  their  own  ;       205 

Tho'  oft  the  dupe  of  thofe  delufive  times, 

Thy  Genius,  fofter'd  with  romantic  rhymes, 

Appears  to  play  the  legendary  Bard, 

And  trefpafs  on  the  Truth  it  meant  to  guard. 

Still  fhall  thy  Name,  with  lafting  glory,  ftand  210 

High  on  the  lift  of  that  advent'rous  band. 

Who,  bidding  Hiftory  fpeak  a  modern  Tongue, 

From  her  cramp'd  hand  the  MonkiOi  fetters  fluno-; 

While  yet  deprtfs'd  in  Gothic  night  £he  lay, 

Nor  faw  th'  a^^proaching  dawn  of  Attic  day.  215 

On  the  bieft  banks  of  Tiber's  honour'd  ftream 
Shone  the  firft  glance  of  that  reviving  beam  ; 
Enlighten'd  Pontiffs,  on  the  frgnal  fpot 
Where  Science  was  profcrib'd,  and  Senfe  forgot ; 
Bade  Learning  ftart  from  out  her  mould'ring  tomb,     220 
And  taught  new  laurels  on  her  brow  to  bloom  ; 
Their  Magic  voice  invok'd  all  Arts,  and  all 
Sprung  into  glory  at  the  potent  call. 

As  in  Arabia's  wafte,  where  Horror  rcio-ns. 
Gigantic  tyrant  of  the  burning  plains !.  225 

The 


[     38     ] 

The  glorious  bounty  of  fome  Royal  mind, 

By  Heaven,  infpir'd,  and  friend  to  human  kind, 

Bids  the  rich  Strudure  of  refrelnment  rife, 

To  chear  the  Traveller's  defpairing  eyes ; 

Who  fees  with  rapture  the  new  fountains  burft,  23Q 

And,  as  he  flakes  his  foul-fubduing  thirft, 

Blcffes  the  hand  which  all  his  pains  beguil'd. 

And  rais'd  an  Eden  in  the  dreary  wild : 

Such  praifes,  Leo  !  to  thy  name  are  due, 

From  all  who  Learning's  cultur'd  field  review,  235 

And  to  its  Fountain,  in  thy  liberal  heart, 

Trace  the  diffuiive  Stream  of  modern  Art. 

'Twas  not  thy  praife  to  animate  alone 

The  fpeaking  Canvafs,  and  the  breathing  Stona, 

Or  tides  of  Bounty  round  Parnaflus  roll,  240 

To  quicken  Genius  in  the  Poet's  foul ; 

Thy  Favour,  like  the  Sun's  prolific  ray, 

Brought  the  keen  Scribe  of  Florence  into  Day  ;  * 

Whofe  fubtle  Wit  difcharg'd  a  dubious  fliaft. 

At  once  the  Friend  and  Foe  of  Kingly  Craft.  245 


Ver.  243.    Sec    NOTE  XIII, 


Tho', 


[     39     ] 

Tho',  in  his  maze  of  Politics  perplext, 
Great  Names  have  differ'd  on  that  doubtful  text ; 
Here  crovvn'd  with  praife,  as  true  to  Virtue's  fide, 
There  view'd  with  horror,  as  th'  Aflaffin's  guide  3 
High  in  a  purer  fphere,  he  fhines  afar,  253 

And  Hift'ry  hails  him  as  her  Morning-ftar. 

Nor  lefsj  O  Leo  !  was  it  thine  to  raife 
The  great  Hiftoric  Chief  of  modern  days,  * 
The  folemn  Guicciardin,  whofe  pen  fevere, 
Unfway'd  by  favour,  nor  reftrain'd  by  fear,  255 

Mark'd  in  his  clofe  of  life,  with  keen  difdain, 
Each  fatal  blemiih  in  thy  motley  reign  ; 
Who,  like  Olorus'  Son,  of  fpirit  chafte, 
And  form'd  to  martial  toils,  minutely  trac'd 
The  woes  he  faw  his  bleeding  country  bear,  260 

And  wars,  in  which  he  claim'd  no  trivial  fhare. 

With  equal  wreaths  let  Davila  be  crown'd,  f 
Alike  in  letters  and  in  arms  renown'd  ! 
Who,  from  his  country  driv'n  by  dire  mifchance, 
Plungxl  in  the  civil  broils  of  bleeding  France,  265 

»  Vcr.  253.     See    NOTE   XIV. 
t  Ver.  262.     See   NOTE   XV. 

Maintaining 


[;   40   3 

Maintaining  flill,  in  Party's  raging  fea, 

His  judgment  fteady,  and  his  fpirit  free,; 

Save  when  the  lierce  religion  of  his  Sires 

DrownM  the  foft  zeal  Humanity  infpires : 

Who  boldly  wrote,  with  fuch  a  faithful  hand,  270 

The  tragic  ftory  of  that  foreign  land. 

The  hoary  Gallic  Chief,  whofe  tranquil  age 

Liften'd  with  joy  to  his  recording  page. 

Tracing  the  fcenes  familiar  to  his  youth. 

Gave  his  ftrong  fandion  to  th'  Hiftorian's  truth.  275 

Oh  Italy  !  tho'  drench'd  with  civil  blood, 
Tho'  drown'd  in  Bigotry's  foul-quenching  flood, 
Hifloric  Genius,  in  thy  troubles  nurft, 
Ev'n  from  the  darknefs  of  the  Convent  burft, 
Venice  may  boaft  eternal  Honour,  won  280 

By  the  bright  labours  of  her  dauntlefs  Son, 
Whofe  hand  the  curtains  of  the  Conclave  drew, 
And  gave  each  prieftly  art  to  public  view. 

Sarpi,  bleft  name!  from  every  foible  clear,  * 
Not  more  to  Science  than  to  Virtue  dear.  28c 


*  Ver.  284.     See   N  O  T  E   XVI. 


Thy 


[     41     ] 

Thy  pen,  thy  life,  of  equal  praife  fecure  ! 

Both  wifely  bold,  and  both  fublimely  pure  ! 

That  Freedom  bids  me  on  thy  merits  dwell, 

Whofe  radiant  form  illum'd  thy  letter'd  cell ; 

Who  to  thy  hand  the  nobleft  talk  affign'd,  290 

That  earth  can  offer  to  a  heavenly  mind  : 

With  Reafon's  arms  to  guard  invaded  laws. 

And  guide  the  pen  of  Truth  in  Freedom's  caufe. 

Too  firm  of  heart  at  Danger's  cry  to  ftoop, 

Nor  Lucre's  flave,  nor  vain  Ambition's  dupe,  295 

Thro'  length  of  days  invariably  the  fame. 

Thy  Country's  liberty  thy  conftant  aim  ! 

For  this  thy  fpirit  dar'd  th'  AflafTrn's  knife, 

That  with  repeated  guilt  purfu'd  thy  life  ; 

For  this  thy  fervent  and  unweary'd  care  300 

Form'd,  ev'n  in  death,  thy  patriotic  prayer, 

And,  while  his  fhadows  on  thine  eye-lids  hung, 

"  Be  it  immortal !"  trembled  on  thy  tongue. 

'But  not  reftricled,  by  the  partial  Fates, 
To  the  bright  clufter  of  Italian  States,  305 

The  light  of  Learning,  and  of  liberal  Tafte, 
Diffufely  llione  o'er  Europe's  Gothic  wafte. 

G  On 


[     42      ] 

On  Tagus'  fliore,  from  whofe  admiring  ftrand 
Great  Gam  a  fail'd,  when  his  advcnt'rous  hand 
The  flag  of  glorious  enterprize  unfurl'd,  310 

To  purchafe  with  his  toils  the  Eaftern  world, 
The  clear  Osorius,  in  his  claffic  phrafc,  * 
Portray' d  the  Heroes  of  thofe  happier  days, 
When  Lufitania,  once  a  mighty  name, 
Outftripp'd  each  rival  in  the  chace  of  Fame  :  315 

Mild  and  majeftic,  her  Hiftorian's  page 
Shares  in  the  glory  of  her  brightefl:  age. 
Iberia's  Genius  bids  jufh  Fame  allow 
As  bright  a  wreath  to  Mariana's  brow  :  f 
Skill'd  to  illuminate  the  diftant  fcene,  320 

In  didion  graceful,  and  of  fpirit  keen. 
His  labour,  by  his  country's  love  endear'd, 
The  gloomy  chaos  of  her  Story  clear'd. 
He  firft  afpir'd  its  fcatter'd  parts  to  clafs,. 
And  bring  to  jufter  form  the  mighty  mafs ;,  325 

As  the  nice  hand  of  Geographic  art 
Draws  the  vaft  globe  on  a  contraded  chart, 


*  Ver.  312.     See   NOTE    XVII. 
t  Ver.  319.    See   NOTE   XVIII.. 


Where 


t     43     ] 

Where  Truth  iminjur'd  fees,  with  ghid  furprize, 

Her  fhape  flill  perfedl,  tho'  of  fmaller  fize. 

Exalted  Mind  !  who  felt  the  People's  right,  330 

In  climes,  where  fouls  are  crufli'd  by  Kingly  might ; 

And  dar'd,  unaw'd  before  a  tyrant's  throne, 

To  make  the  fanftity  of  Freedom  known  ! 

But  (hort,  O  Genius !  is  thy  tranfient  hour, 
In  the  dark  regions  of  defpotic  Power.  335 

As  the  faint  ftruggle  of  the  folar  beam. 
When  vapours  intercept  the  golden  ftream. 
Pouring  thro'  parted  clouds  a  glancing  fire, 
Plays,  in  fhort  triumph,  on  fome  glittering  fpire ; 
But  while  the  eye  admires  the  partial  ray,  340 

The  pale  and  watery  luftre  melts  away : 
Thus  gleams  of  literary  fplendor  play'd, 
And  thus  on  Spain's  o'erclouded  realm  decay'd  : 
While  Holland,  Liberty's  immediate  care, 
Defy'd  the  prefTure  of  Boeotian  air,  345 

Burft  the  oppreffive  gloom  around  her  hurl'd, 
And  drew  attention  from  th'  admiring  world. 
When,  by  long  toils,  her  dauntlefs  warriors  broke 
Their  Spanifli  bonds,  and  fpurn'd  a  bloody  yoke, 

G  2  In 


[     4+     ] 

In  the  bright  moments  of  that  blefled  hour,  350 

With  talents  equal  to  his  Country's  power, 

The  fervid  Grotius  to  her  glory  rais'd  * 

A  column,  fplendid  as  the  feats  he  prais'd ; 

Stifled  his  juft  refentment,  to  beftow 

A  clear  encomium  on  his  private  foe,  355 

And  honour'd  in  the  Chief,  who  fav'd  the  State, 

The  rafli  oppreflbr,  who  provok'd  his  hate. 

Thou  all-accomplifli'd  Youth  !  whofe  early  page 
Charm'd  the  aftonilli'd  eye  of  learned  Age, 
Let  admiration  of  thy  worth  infpire  360 

Such  liberal  praife,  as  echoed  from  thy  lyre. 
When  Honour  crown'd,  by  thy  poetic  hand, 
The  far-fam'd  Scholar  of  thy  native  land  ! 
Learning  ne'er  faw,  in  all  her  numerous  race, 
A  fon  more  worthy  of  her  fond  embrace :  365 

Thy  mind  expanded  to  her  empire's  bound  ; 
There  every  Science  a  jEirm  ftation  found ; 
There  gay  and  grave,  in  rare  aficmblage,  flione  ;, 
A  wonder,  equall'd  by  thy  heart  alone ! 


*Ver.  352.     See    NOTE   XIX. 


For,. 


[     +5     J 

For,  by  enlighten'd  Faith's  preiiding  care,  370 

The  rival  Virtues  were  all  marfliaird  there. 

Worth  fo  tranfcendent,  Heaven  with  fmiles  furvey'd, 

And  with  the  choiceft  of  its  gifts  repaid  ; 

Gave  thee  a  Partner  of  thy  chequer'd  fate, 

Pure  as  thy  Genius,  and  as  firmly  great ;  375 

With  equal  love,  with  equal  courage  warm, 

A  kindred  Spirit  in  a  fofter  form  : 

Thy  dear  Maria  fhar'd  thy  captive  hour, 

She  brav'd  the  vengeance  of  offended  power; 

And,  with  the  fondnefs  of  Admetus'  wife,  380 

Reftor'd  thy  freedom  at  the  rifk  of  life  : 

Her  days  were  guarded  by  the  Powers  above  ; 

And  thy  juft  lyre  immortaliz'd  her  love. 

Ye  peerlefs  Couple  !  tho'  with  wrongs  oppreft, 

In  virtue  happy,  and  by  union  bleft,  385 

From  Fame's  fond  lips  your  blended  praife  {hall  flow, 

While  Excellence  can  find  a  friend  below  ; 

While  Love's  chafte  fires  thro'  human  bofoms  roll ; 

While  Liberty  and  Truth  delight  the  foul! 

Your  names,  applauded  by  the  fpacious  earth,  390 

Still  dignify  the  land  that  boafls  your  birth  ; 

3  Tho' 


t  46  ] 

Tho'  her  tame  Genius,  Wealth's  more  willing  flave, 
Soon  loft  that  mental  fire,  which  Freedom  gave, 
Whofe  brilliant  flame  in  fickly  languor  dies, 
Where'er  the  damps  of  Avarice  arife  :  395 

Hence,  tho'  lefs  free,  yet  true  to  Honour's  aim, 
France  is  more  opulent  in  letter'd  fame. 

There,  in  the  dignity  of  virtuous  Pride, 
Thro'  painful  fcenes  of  public  fervice  try'd, 

And  keenly  confcious  of  his  Country's  woes,  4C0 

The  liberal  fplrit  of  Thuanus  rofe  :   * 

O'er  Earth's  wide  ftage  a  curious  eye  he  caft, 

And  caught  the  living  pageant  as  it  paft  : 

With  patriot  care  moft  eager  to  advance 

The  rights  of  Nature,  and  the  weal  of  France  !  405 

His  language  noble,  as  his  temper  clear 

From  Faction's  rage,  and  Superftition's  fear  I 

In  Wealth  laborious  !  amid  Wrongs  fedate  ! 

His  Virtue  lovely,  as  his  Genius  great  ! 

Ting'd  with  fome  marks,  that  from  his  climate  fpring, 

He  priz'd  his  Country,  but  ador'd  his  King;  411 

•  Ver.  401.     See    NOTE    XX. 

Yet 


[     47     ] 

Yet  with  a  zeal  from  ilavifli  awe  refin'd. 

Shone  the  clear  model  of  a  Gallic  mind. 

Thou  friend  of  Science  !  'twas  thy  fignal  praife, 

A  juft  memorial  of  her  Sons  to  raife  ;  41^5 

To  blazon  firft,  on  Hift'ry's  brighter  leaf, 

The  laurel'd  Writer  with  the  laurel'd  Chief! 

But  O  !  pure  Spirit !  what  a  fate  was  thine  ! 
How  Truth  and  Reafon  at  thy  wrongs  repine  ! 
How  blame  thy  King,  tho'  rob'd  in  Honour's  ray,      420 
Who  left  thy  Fame  to  fubtle  Priefts  a  prey. 
And  tamely  faw  their  murky  wiles  o'er  whelm 
Thy  works,  the  light  of  his  reviving  realm  ! 

Tho'  Pontiffs  execrate,  and  Kings  betray, 
Let  not  this  fate  your  generous  warmth  allay,  425; 

Ye  kindred  Worthies  !  who  ftill  dare  to  wield 
Reafon's  keen  fword,  and  Toleration's  (hield, 
In  climes  where  Perfecution's  iron  mace 
Is  rais'd  to  maiTacre  the  human  race  !. 
The  heart  of  Nature  will  your  virtue  feel,  430 

And  her  immortal  voice  reward  your  zeal  :. 
Firft  in  her  praife  her  fearlefs  champions  live, 
Crown'd  with  the  nobleit  palms  that  earth  can  give. 

Firm 


[      48      ] 

Firm  in  this  band,  who  to  her  aid  advance, 

And  high  amid  th'  Hiftoric  fons  of  France,  435 

Delighted  Nature  favv,  with  partial  care. 

The  lively  vigour  of  the  gay  Voltaire  ; 

And  fondly  gave  him,  with  Anacreon's  fire, 

To  throw  the  hand  of  Age  acrofs  the  lyre  : 

But  mute  that  vary'd  voice,  which  pleas'd  fo  long!     440 

Th'  Hiftorian's  tale  is  clos'd,  the  Poet's  fong  ! 

Within  the  narrow  tomb  behold  him  lie, 

Who  fill'd  fo  large  a  fpace  in  Learning's  eye  ! 

Thou  Mind  unweary'd  !  thy  long  toils  are  o'er  ; 

Cenfure  and  Praife  can  touch  thy  ear  no  more  :  445 

Still  let  me  breathe  with  juft  regret  thy  name. 

Lament  thy  foibles,  and  thy  powers  proclaim  ! 

On  the  wide  fea  of  Letters  'twas  thy  boaft 

To  croud  each  fail,  and  touch  at  every  coaft  : 

From  that  rich  deep  how  often  haft  thou  brought       450 

The  pure  and  precious  pearls  of  fplendid  Thought ! 

How  didft  thou  triumph  on  that  fubjed-tide. 

Till  Vanity's  wild  guft,  and  ftormy  Pride, 

Drove  thy  ftrong  bark,  in  evil  hour,  to  fplit 

L^pon  the  fatal  rock  of  impious  Wit !  455 

But 


[     49     ] 

But  be  thy  fallings  cover'd  by  thy  tomb  ! 
And  guardian  laurels  o'er  thy  aflies  bloom  ! 

From  the  long  annals  of  the  world  thy  art, 
With  chemic  procefs,  drew  the  richer  part  j 
To  Hift'ry  gave  a  philofophic  air,  460 

And  made  the  intereft  of  mankind  her  care  ; 
Pleas'd  her  grave  brow  with  garlands  to  adorn, 
And  from  the  rofe  of  Knowledge  ftrip  the  thorn. 

Thy  lively  Eloquence,  in  profe,  in  verfe, 
Still  keenly  bright,  and  elegantly  terfe,  465 

Flames  with  bold  fpirit ;  yet  is  idly  rafli  : 
Thy  promis'd  light  is  oft  a  dazzling  flarti ; 
Thy  Wifdom  verges  to  farcaftic  fport, 
Satire  thy  joy  !  and  ridicule  th.j  fort  I 
But  the  gay  Genius  of  the  Gallic  foil,  470 

Shrinking  from  folemn  tafks  of  ferious  toil. 
Thro'  every  fcene  his  playful  air  maintains. 
And  in  the  light  Memoir  unrival'd  reigns. 
Thy  Wits,  O  France  !  (as  e'en  thy  Critics  own)  * 
Support  not  Hiftory's  majeftic  tone;  4'7£ 

*  Vcr,  474.     See   NOTE  XXI. 

H  They, 


[     50     ] 

They,  like  thy  Soldiers,  want,  in  feats  of  length, 
The  perfcvering  foul  of  Britifh  flrength. 

Hail  to  thee,  Britain  !  hail  !  delightful  land  ! 
I  fpring  with  filial  joy  to  reach  thy  ftrand  : 
And  thou  !  bleft  nouriflier  of  Souls,  fublime  4S& 

As  e'er  immortaliz'd  their  native  clime, 
Rich  in  Poetic  treafures,  yet  excufe 
The  trivial  offering  of  an  humble  Mufe,. 
Who  pants  to  add,  with  fears  by  love  overcome, 
Her  mite  of  Glory  to  thy  countlefs  fum !  4S5 

With  vary'd  colours,  of  the  richeft  die,. 
Fame's  brilliant  banners  o'er  thy  Offspring  fly  ; 
In  native  Vigour  bold,  by  Freedom  led, 
No  path  of  Honour  have  they  failM  to  tread  r 
But  while  they  wifely  plan,  and  bravely  dare,  490, 

Their  own  atchievements  are  their  lateft  care. 

Tho'  Camden,  rich  in  Learning's  various  ftore,. 

Sought  in  Tradition's  mine  Truth's  genuine  ore. 

The  wafte  of  Hift'ry  lay  in  lifelefs  fhade, 

Tho'  Rawleigh's  piercing  eye  that  world  furvey'd.    495 

Tho'  mightier  Names  there  cafi:  a  cafual  glance, 

They  feem'd  to  faunter  round  the  field  by  chance, 

Till 


[     SI     ] 

Till  Clarendon  arofe,  and  in  the  hour 

When  civil  Difcord  wak'd  each  mental  Power, 

With  brave  defire  to  reach  this  diftant  Goal,  500 

Strain'd  all  the  vigour  of  his  manly  foul. 

Nor  Truth,  nor  Freedom's  injur'd  Powers,  allow 

A  wreath  unfpotted  to  his  haughty  brow  : 

Friendfhip's  firm  fpirit  ftill  his  fame  exalts, 

With  fweet  atonement  for  his  lefTer  faults.  505 

His  Pomp  of  Phrafe,  his  Period  of  a  mile, 

And  all  the  maze  of  his  bewilder'd  Style, 

Illum'd  by  Warmth  of  Heart,  no  more  offend  : 

What  cannot  Tafte  forgive,  in  Falkland's  friend  ? 

Nor  flow  his  praifes  from  this  Angle  fource ;  510 

One  province  of  his  art  difplays  his  force  : 

His  Portraits  boafl:,  with  features  ftrongly  like. 

The  foft  precifion  of  the  clear  Vandyke  : 

Tho',  like  the  Painter,  his  faint  talents  yield. 

And  fink  embarrafs'd  in  the  Epic  field.  515 

Yet  fhall  his  labours  long  adorn  our  Ille, 

Like  the  proud  glories  of  fome  Gothic  pile : 

They,  tho'  conftrudled  by  a  Bigot's  hand. 

Nor  nicely  finifli'd,  nor  corredly  plan'd, 

H  2  With 


[     52     ] 

With  folemu  Majefty,  and  pious  Gloom,  520 

An  awful  influence  o'er  the  mind  afliime ; 
And  from  the  alien  eyes  of  every  Sed 
Attract  obfcrvance,  and  command  refpeft. 

In  following  years,  when  thy  great  name,  Nassau  \ 
Stampt  the  bleft  deed  of  Liberty  and  Law  ;  525 

When  clear,  and  guiltlefs  of  Oppreflion's  rage, 
There  rofe  in  Britain  an  Auguftan  age. 
And  clufler'd  Wits,  by  emulation  bright, 
Diffus'd  o'er  Anna's  reign  their  mental  light ; 
That  Conftellation  feem'd,  tho'  ftrong  its  flame,         530 
To  want  the  fplendor  of  Hiftoric  fame  : 
Yet  Burnet's  page  may  lafl:ing  glory  hope, 
Howe'er  infulted  by  the  fpleen  of  Pope. 
Tho'  his  rough  Language  hafte  and  warmth  denote. 
With  ardent  Honcfty  of  Soul  he  wrote  ;  535 

Tho'  critic  cenfures  on  his  work  may  fliower, 
Like  Faith,  his  Freedom  has  a  faving  power. 

Nor  flialt  thou  want,  Rapin  !  thy  well-earn'd  praife  ; 
The  fage  Polybius  thou  of  modern  days ! 
Thy  Sword,  thy  Pen,  have  both  thy  name  endear'd  ;  54.0 
This  join'd  our  i\rms,  and  that  our  Story  clear'd  : 

Thy 


[     53     ] 

Thy  foreign  hand  difcharg'd  th'  Hiflorian's  truft, 

Unfway'd  by  Party,  and  to  Freedom  juft. 

To  lettered  Fame  we  own  thy  fair  pretence, 

From  patient  Labour,  and  from  candid  Senfe.  545 

Yet  Public  Favour,  ever  hard  to  fix. 

Flew  from  thy  page,  as  heavy  and  prolix. 

For  K>on,  emerging  from  the  Sophifts'  fchool, 

With  Spirit  eager,  yet  with  Judgment  cool, 

With  fubtle  fkill  to  fteal  upon  applaufe,  550 

And  give  falfe  vigour  to  the  weaker  caufe  ; 

To  paint  a  fpecious  fcene  with  niceft  art, 

Retouch  the  whole,  and  varnifli  every  part ; 

Graceful  in  Style,  in  Argument  acute  ; 

MaPcer  of  every  trick  in  keen  Difpute  !  rrr 

With  thefe  ftrong  powers  to  form  a  winning  tale, 

And  hide  Deceit  in  Moderation's  veil. 

High  on  the  pinacle  of  Falhion  plac'd, 

Hume  fhone  the  idol  of  Hiiloric  Tafte. 

Already,  pierc'd  by  Freedom's  fearching  rays,  cQo 

The  waxen  fabric  of  his  fame  decays. - — 

Think  not,  keen  Spirit  !  that  thefe  hands  prefume 

To  tear  each,  leaf  of  laurel  from  thy, tomb  1 

Thefe 


[     5+     ] 

Thefe  hands !  which,  if  a  heart  of  human  frame 

Could  ftoop  to  harbour  that  ungenerous  aim,  565 

Would  fhield  thy  Grave,  and  give,  with  guardian  care, 

Each  type  of  Eloquence  to  flourifli  there  ! 

But  Public  Love  commands  the  painful  tafk. 

From  the  pretended  Sage  to  ftrip  the  mafk, 

When  his  falfe  tongue,  averfe  to  Freedom's  caufe,       570 

Profanes  the  fpirit  of  her  antient  laws. 

As  Afiia's  foothing  opiate  Drugs,  by  ftealth, 

Shake  every  flacken'd  nerve,  and  fap  the  health  ; 

Thy  Writings  thus,  with  noxious  charms  refin'd, 

Seeming  to  foothe  its  ills,  unnerve  the  Mind.  575 

While  the  keen  cunning  of  thy  hand  pretends 

To  ftrike  alone  at  Party's  abjedl  ends. 

Our  hearts  more  free  from  Fadtion's  Weeds  we  feel, 

But  they  have  loft  the  Flower  of  Patriot  Zeal. 

Wild  as  thy  feeble  Metaphyfic  page,  580 

Thy  Hift'ry  rambles  into  Sceptic  rage  ; 

Whofe  giddy  and  fantaftic  dreams  abufe 

A  Hampden's  Virtue,  and  a  Shakespear's  Mufe. 

With  purer  Spirit,  free  from  Party  ftrife. 
To  foothe  his  evening  hour  of  honour'd  life,  585 

3  See 


[     55     ] 

See  candid  Lyttelton  at  length  unfold 

The  deeds  of  Liberty  in  days  of  old  ! 

Fond  of  the  theme,  and  narrative  with  age, 

He  winds  the  lengthen'd  tale  thro'  many  a  page  ; 

But  there  the  beams  of  Patriot  Virtue  fhine  ;  590 

There  Truth  and  Freedom  fandify  the  line, 

And  laurels,  due  to  Civil  Wifdom,  fhield 

This  noble  Ncftor  of  th'  Hifioric  field. 

The  living  Names,  who  there  difplay  their  power, 
And  give  its  glory  to  the  prefent  hour,  '  '     595 

I  pafs  with  mute  regard  ;  in  fear  to  fail, 
Weighing  their  worth  in  a  fufpeded  fcale  : 
Thy  right,  Pofterity  !  I  facred  hold. 
To  fix  the  fiamp  on  literary  Gold  ; 

Bleft  !  if  this  lighter  Ore,  which  I  prepare  6co 

For  thy  fupreme  AfTay,  with  anxious  care. 
Thy  current  fanftion  unimpeach'd  enjoy,  ' 
As  only  tindur'd  with  a  flight  alloy  !. 

JEND   OF    THE    SECOND    EPISTLE. 


EPISTLE 


EPISTLE 


THE       THIRD. 


Ventum  eft  ad  partem  operis  deftinati  longe  graviffimam  -  -  -  -  nunc 
quoque,  licet  major  quam  unquam  moles  premat,  tamen  profpi- 
cienti  finem  mihi  conftitutum  eft  vel  deficere  potius,  quam  dcf- 

perare noftra  temeritas  etiani  mores  ei  conabitur  dare,   et 

affignabit  officia.  Quintil.  Lib.  xii. 


ARGUMENT 

OF    THE    THIRD    EPISTLE. 

The  four ces  of  the  chief  defeSis  in  Hifory — Vanity^  natio7tat 

afid  private — Flattery^   and  her   various  arts — Party- 

fpirit,    Superftition^    and  falfe   Philofophy.  —  CharaSier 

of  the  accomplifj  d  Hiftorian. — The  haws  of  Hifioiy — 

Style — Importance  of  the  fubjeSi — Failure  o/"Knolles 

from  a  fubjcEi  ill  chofen — Danger   of  dwelling  on   the 

difant  and  minute  parts  of  a  fuhjeSi  really  inter efling — 

Failure  f?/*  Milton  in  this  particular. — The  worfl  defeSi 

of  an  Hiflorian^  afyfiem  ofTyranjiy — Jnflance  /«  Br  ad  v.— ' 

Want  ofaGeneralHiflory  ofE7igland:  Wijhfor  its  accom- 

plifj?nent. — life  and  Delight  of  other  Hifories — of  Rome, 

Labour  of  the  Hifiorian — Cavils  againfl  him. — Concer?i 

for   Gibbon's  irreligious  fpirit — The  idle  cenfure  of  his 

pajfon  for  Fame — Defc?ice  of  that  pajjion, — Conclufton, 


EPISTLE        III. 


SAY  thou !  whofe  eye  has,  like  the  Lynx's  beam, 
Pierc'd  the  deep  windings  of  this  mazy  ftream. 
Say,  from  what  fource  the  various  Poifons  glide, 
That  darken  Hiftory's  difcolour'd  tide  ; 
Whofe  purer  waters  to  the  mind  difpenfe  5 

The  wealth  of  Virtue,  and  the  fruits  of  Senfe ! 
Thefe  Poifons  flow,  colledive  and  apart, 
From  Public  Vanity,  and  Private  Art. 
At  firfl  Delufion  built  her  fafe  retreat 
On  the  broad  bafe  of  National  Conceit :  10 

Nations,  like  Men,  in  Flattery  confide, 
The  flaves  of  Fancy,  and  the  dupes  of  Pride. 
Each  petty  region  of  the  peopled  earth, 
Howe'er  debas'd  by  intelledual  dearth, 

I   2  Still 


[     (>o      ] 

Stiil  proudly  boaftcd  of  her  claiins  to  fliare  15 

Tlie  liclied  portion  of  cclcftial  care  : 

VoT  her  flie  f.iw  the  rival  Gods  engage, 

And  Heaven  convuls'd  with  elemental  rage. 

To  her  the  thunder's  roar,  the  lightning's  fire, 

Confirm'd  their  favour,  or  denounc'd  their  ire.  20 

To  feize  this  foible," daring  Hift'ry  threw 

Illufive  terrors  o'er  each  fcene  One  drew  ; 

Nor  would  her  fpirit,  in  the  heat  of  youth. 

Watch,  with  a  Veflal's  care,  the  lamp  of  Truth  ; 

But,  wildly  mounting  in  a  Witch's  form,  25 

Her  voice  delighted  to  condenfe  the  ftorm  ; 

With  fhovvers  of  blood  th'  af^oniOi'd  earth  to  drench,. 

The  frame  of  Nature  from  its  bafe  to  wrench  ; 

In  Horror's  veil  involve  her  plain  events, 

And  fhake  th'  affrighted  world  with  dire  portents.  *     3a 

Still  fofter  arts  her  fubtle  fpirit  try'd. 

To  win  the  eafy  faith  of  Public  Pride  : 

She  told  what  Powers,  in  times  of  early  date, 

Gave  confecration  to  the  infant  State ; 

*  Ver.  30.     See    NOTE    I. 

Mark'd 


[     6.     ] 

Mark'd  the  bleft  fpot  by  facred  Founders  trod,  35 

And  all  th'  atchievements  of  the  guardian  God. 

Thus  while,  like  Fame,  flie  refts  upon  the  land, 

Her  figure  grows  j  her  magic  limbs  expand  ; 

Her  tow'ring  head,  to  high  Olympus  toft, 

Pierces  the  fky,  and  in  that  blaze  is  loft.  40 

Yet  bold  Philofophy  at  length  deftroy'd 
The  brilliant  phantoms  of  th'  Hiftoric  void  ; 
Her  fcrutinizing  eye,  whofe  fearch  fevere 
Rivals  the  prefTure  of  Ithuriel's  fpear. 
Permits  no  fraudful  femblance  to  efcape,  45 

But  turns  each  Marvel  to  its  real  ftiape. 
The  blazing  meteors  fall  from  Hift'ry's  fphere  j 
Her  darling  Demi-gods  no  more  appear  ; 
No  more  the  Nations,  with  heroic  joy, 
Boaft  their  defcent  from  Heaven-defcended  Troy  :         50 
On  Francio  now  the  Gallic  page  is  mute,  * 
And  Britifti  Story  drops  the  name  of  Brute. 
What  other  failings  from  this  fountain  ftow'dj 
Ill-meafur'd  fame  on  martial  feats  beftow'd, 


*  Ver.  51.     See   NOTE    II, 


And 


[        62        ] 

And  heaps,  enlarg'd  to  mountains  of  the  flain,  55 

The  miracles  of  valour,  ftill  remain. 
But  of  all  faults,  that  injured  Truth  may  blame, 
Thofc  proud  miftakes  the  firft  indulgence  claim. 
Where  Public  Zeal  the  ardent  Pen  betrays, 
And  Patriot  PafTions  fvvell  the  partial  praife.  60 

Ev'n  private  Vanity  may  pardon  find, 
When  built  on  Worth,  and  with  InftrujElion  join'd: 
In  Britifli  Annalifts  more  rarely  found. 
This  venial  foible  fprings  on  foreign  ground  ; 
'Tis  theirs,  who  fcribble  near  the  Seine  or  Loire,  65 

Thofe  lively  Heroes  of  the  light  Memoir  ! 
jDefe<9:s  more  hateful  to  ingenuous  eyes. 
In  Adulation's  fervile  arts  arife  : 
Mean  Child  of  Int'reft !  as  her  Parent  bafe  ! 
Her  charms  Deformity  !  her  wealth  Difgrace  !  70 

Dimm'd  by  her  breath,  the  light  of  Learning  fades  ; 
Her  breath  the  wifcfi;  of  mankind  degrades, 
And  Bacon's  felf,  for  mental  glory  born,  * 
Meets,  as  her  ilave,  our  pity,  or  our  fcorn. 


«  Ver.  72'     See    NOTE   III. 


Unhappy 


C    63     ] 

Unhappy  Genius  !  in  whofe  vvond'rous  mind  75 

The  fordid  Reptile  and  the  Seraph  join'd  ; 

Now  traverfinpr  the  world  on  Wifdom's  wincrs. 

Now  bafely  crouching  to  the  laft  of  Kings : 

Thy  fault,  which  Freedom  with  regret  furveysy 

This  ufeful  Truth,  in  ftrongeft  light,  difplays  ;  80 

That  not  fufficient  are  thofe  fhining  parts, 

Which  fhcd  new  radiance  o'er  concenter'd  arts  j 

To  reach  with  glory  the  Hiftoric  goal 

Demands  a  firm,  an  independent  foul. 

An  eagle-eye,  that  with  undazzled  gaze  85 

Can  look  on  Majefty's  meridian  blaze. 

But  Adulation,  in  the  worft  of  times,. 

Throws  her  broad  mantle  o'er  imperial  criaies  -, 

In  Hifl'ry's  field,  her  abjed:  toils  delight 

To  {hut  the  fcenes  of  Nature  from  our  fight,  go 

Each  human  Virtue  in  one  mafs  to  flin"-. 

And  of  that  mountain  make  the  ftatue  of  a  Kino-.  ^ 

Yet  oft  her  labours,  flighted  or  abhorr'd, 

Receive  in  prefent  fcorn  their  jufl:  reward  ; 


*    T", 


Ver.  92.     See    NOTE    IV. 


Scorn 


C    6+   ] 

Scorn  from  that  Idol,  at  wliofe  feet  Hie  lays  95 

The  fordid  offering  of  her  venal  praife. 

As  crown'd  with  Indian  laurels,  nobly  won,  * 
His  conqueft  ended,  Philip's  warlike  Son 
Sail'd  down  th'  Hydafpes  in  a  voyage  of  fport, 
The  chief  Hiftorian  of  his  fumptuous  court  100 

Read  his  defcription  of  the  fingle  iight, 
Where  Porus  yielded  to  young  Amnion's  might ; 
And,  like  a  Scribe  in  courtly  arts  adroit, 
Moft  largely  magnity'd  his  Lord's  exploit  1 
Tho'  ever  on  the  ftretch  to  Glory's  goal,  105 

Fame  the  lirfl  paflion  of  his  fiery  foul  I 
Fierce  from  his  feat  the  indignant  Hero  fprung, 
And  o'er  the  vciTcl's  fide  the  volume  flung  ; 
Then,  as  he  fiw  the  fawning  Scribler  flirink, 
**   Thus  fliould  the  Author  with  his  Writing  fink,       no 
"   Who  fiifles  Truth  in  Flattery's  difguife, 
"  And  buries  honeft  Fame  beneath  a  load  of  Lies." 

But  modern  Princes,  having  lefs  to  lofe. 
Rarely  thcfe  infults  on  their  name  accufe  : 

*  Ver.  97.     See    N  O  T  E   V, 

In 


[     65     j 

In  Dedications  quietly  inurn'd,  *  ur 

They  take  more  lying  Pralfe  than  Amnion  fpurnM  ; 

And  Learning's  pliant  Sons,  to  flattery  prone, 

Bend  with  fuch  blind  obeifance  to  the  throne, 

The  bafeft  King  that  ever  curft  the  earth, 

Finds  many  a  witnefs  to  atteft  his  worth:  120 

Tho'  dead,  flill  flatter'd  by  Tome  abjed  (lave, 

He  fpreads  contagious  poifon  from  his  grave, 

While  fordid  hopes  th'  Hiftorian's  hand  entice 

To  varnifh  ev'n  the  tomb  of  Royal  Vice. 

Tho'  Nature  wept  with  defolated  Spain,  125 

In  tears  of  blood,  the  fecond  Philip's  reign  ; 

Tho'  fuch  deep  fins  deform'd  his  fullen  mind, 

As  merit  execration  from  mankind  : 

A  mighty  empire  by  his  crimes  undone  ; 

A  people  maflacred  ;  a  murder'd  fon  :  130 

Tho'  Heaven's  difpleafure  ftopt  his  parting  breath, 

To  bear  long  loathfomc  pangs  of  hideous  death ; 

Flattery  can  ftill  the  Ruffian's  praife  repeat. 

And  call  this  Wafter  of  the  earth  difcreet : 

*  Ver.  115.     See   NOTE    VI. 

K  Still 


[     06     ] 

Still  Cvin  Herrera,  mourning  o'er  his  urn,  *  135 

His  dying  pangs  to  blifsful  rapture  turn, 

And  paint  the  King,  from  earth  by  curfes  driven, 

A  Saint,  accepted  by  approving  Heaven  ! 

But  arts  of  deeper  guile,  and  bafer  wrong. 
To  Adulation's  fubtle  Scribes  belong :  140 

They  oft,  their  prefent  idols  to  exalt, 
Profanely  burft  the  confecrated  vault ; 
Steal  from  the  buried  Chief  bright  Honour's  plume, 
Or  ftain  with  Slander's  gall  the  Statefman's  tomb  : 
Stay,  facrilegious  flaves  !  with  reverence  tread  145 

O'er  the  bleft  afhcs  of  the  worthy  dead  I 
See  !  where,  uninjur'd  by  the  charnel's  damp. 
The  Veftal,  Virtue,  with  undying  lamp. 
Fond  of  her  toil,  and  jealous  of  her  truft. 
Sits  the  keen  Guardian  of  their  facred  duft,  150 

And  thus  indignant,  from  the  depth  of  earth. 
Checks  your  vile  aim,  and  vindicates  their  worth  t 
"  Hence  ye  1  who  buried  excellence  belied, 
"  To  footh  the  fordid  fplccn  of  living  Pride  j 

*_Ver.  135.     See   NOTE    YIL 

"  Go! 


[     &7     ] 

"  Go!  gild  with  Adulation's  feeble  ray  i-p 

"  Th'  imperial  pageant  of  your  paiTing  day  ! 

"  Nor  hope  to  ftain,  on  bafe  Detraction's  fcroll, 

''   A  Tully's  morals,  or  a  Sidney's  foul  !" — •  * 

Juft  Nature  will  abhor,  and  Virtue  fcorn, 

That  Pen,  tho'  eloquence  its  page  adorn,  iGo 

Which,  brib'd  by  Intereft,  or  from  vain  pretence 

To  fubtler  Wit,  and  deep-difcerning  Senfe, 

Would  blot  the  praife  on  public  toils  beftow'd, 

And  Patriot  pafTions,  as  a  jeft,  explode. 

Lefs  abjed  failings  fpring  from  Party-rage,  165 

The  peft  moft  frequent  in  th'  Hiftoric  page ; 
That  common  jaundice  of  the  turbid  brain, 
Which  leaves  the  heart  unconfcious  of  a  ftain, 
Yet  fulFers  not  the  clouded  mind  to  view 
'     Or  men,  or  adlions,  in  their  native  hue  :  1 70 

For  Party  mingles,  in  her  feverifh  dreams, 
Credulity  and  Doubt's  moft  wild  extremes : 
She  gazes  thro'  a  glafs,  whofe  different  ends 
Reduce  her  foes,  and  magnify  her  friends  : 

*  Ver.  153.     See   NOTE   VIII. 

K  2  Deludon 


[     68     J 

Delufion  ever  on  her  fpirit  dwells  ;  175 

And  to  tlie  worfl  exccfs  its  fury  fwells. 
When  Supcrftition's  raging  pafTions  roll 
Their  favage  frenzy  thro'  the  Bigot's  foul'. 

Nor  Icfs  the  blemifli,  tho'  of  different  kind,  * 
From  falfe  Phiiofophy's  conceits  refin'd  !  i-So- 

Her  fubtle  iniluen-ce,  on  Hiftory  fliedy 
Strikes  the  fine  nerve  of  Admiration  dead,. 
(That  nerve  defpis'd  by  fceptic  fons  of  earth-, 
Yet  ftill  a  vital  fpring  of  human  worth.) 
This  artful  juggler,  with  a  fkill  fo  nice,.  185 

Shifts  the  light  forms  of  Virtue  and  of  Vice, 
That,  ere  they  wake  abhorrence  or  delight. 
Behold  !  they  both  are  vanifh'd  from  the  fight ; 
And  Nature's  warm  affediion^  thus  deftroy'd, 
Leave  in  the  puzzled  mind  a  lifelefs  void.  190 

Far  other  views  the  liberal  Genius  fire, 
Whofe  toils  to  pure  Hiftoric  praife  afpire  j 
Nor  Moderation's  dupe,  nor  Faction's  brave. 
Nor  Guilt's  apologift,  nor  Flattery's  ilave  : 


*  Ver.  179.     See    NOTE  IX. 


Wife, 


[     6^    J 

Wife,  but  not  cunning;  temperate,  not  cold;  195- 

Servant  of  Trutli,  and  in  that  fervice  bold  ; 

Free  from  all  biafs,  fave  that  jufl:  controul 

By  which  mild  Nature  fways  the  manly  foul^ 

And  Reafon's  philanthropic  fplrit  draws 

To  Virtue's  intereft,  and  Freedom's  caufe  ;  200 

Thofe  great  ennoblers  of  the  human  name, 

Pure  fprings  of  Power,  of  Happinefs,  and  Fame  ! 

To  teach  their  influence,  and  fpread  their  fway,. 

The  juft  Hiflorian  winds  his  toilfome  way  ; 

From  filent  darknefs,  creeping  o'er  the  earth,.  2-05 

Redeems  the  finking  trace  of  ufeful  worth  ;. 

In  Vice's  bofom  marks  the  latent  thorn^ 

And  brands  that  public  pcfl  with  public  fcorn. 

A  lively  teacher  in  a  moral  fchool ! 

In  that  great  office  fteady^  clear,  and  cool  !.  210 

Pieas'd  to  promote  the  welfare  of  mankind, 

And  by  intorming  meliorate  the  mind  ! 

Such  the  bright  tafis:  committed  to  his  care  I 

Boundlefs  its  ufe  ;  but  its  completion  rare. 

Critics  havefaid  "  Tho'  high  th'  Hiftorian's  charoe,  2 1  - 
His  Laws  are  fimple  tho'  his  Province  laro-e  • 

Tw'o 


[     70     ] 
Two  obvious  rules  enfure  his  full  fuccefs — 
To  fpcak  no  Falfehood  \  and  no  Truth  fupprefs  ;  * 
Art  mufl  to  other  works  a  luftre  lend, 
But  Hiftory  pleafes,  howfoe'er  it's  penn'd."  220 

Perchance  in  ruder  periods ;  but  in  thofe. 
Where  all  the  luxury  of  Learning  flows, 
To  Truth's  plain  fare  no  palate  will  fubmit, 
Each  reader  grows  an  Epicure  in  Wit ; 
And  Knowledge  mufl:  his  nicer  tafte  beguile  225 

With  all  the  poignant  charms  of  Attic  ftyle. 
The  curious  Scholar,  in  his  judgment  choice, 
Expedts  no  common  Notes  from  Hiflory's  voice  ; 
But  all  the  tones,  that  all  the  pafTions  fuit, 
From  the  bold  Trumpet  to  the  tender  Lute  :  230 

Yet  if  thro'  Muiic's  fcalc  her  voice  fhould  range. 
Now  high,  now  low,  with  many  a  pleafmg  chancre, 
Grace  muft  thro'  every  variation  glide. 
In  every  movement  Majefty  prefide  : 
With  eafe  not  carelefs,  tho'  correal  not  cold  ;  235 

Soft  without  languor,  without  harfhnefs  bold. 


Vcr.  218.     See    NOTE   X. 


Tho' 


[     71     3 

Tho'  Affedlation  can  all  works  debafe, 
In  Language,  as  in  Life,  the  bane  of  Grace  { 
Regarded  ever  with  a  fcornful  fmile, 

She  moft  is  cenfur'd  in  .th'  Hifl:oric  {\.yle :  240 

Yet  her  iniinuating  power  is  fucb, 
Not  ev'n  the  Greeks  efcap'd  her  baleful  touch  ; 
Hence  the  fidlitious  Speech,  and  long  Harangue, 
Too  oft,  like  weights,  on  ancient  Story  hang. 
Lefs  fond  of  labour,  modern  Pens  devife  245 

Affedled  beauties  of  inferior  fize  : 
They  in  a  narrower  compafs  boldly  ftrike 
The  fancied  Portrait,  with  no  feature  like  ; 
And  Nature's  fimple  colouring  vainly  quit. 
To  boaft  the  brilliant  glare  of  fading  Wit.  250 

Thofe  works  alone  may  that  blef!;  fate  ex'pedl 
To  live  thro'  time,  unconfcious  of  negle6l. 
That  catch,  in  fpringing  from  no  fordid  fource. 
The  eafe  of  Nature,  and  of  Truth  the  force. 

But  not  ev'n  Truth,  with  bright  Expreilion  grac'd,  255 
Nor  all  Defcription^s  powers,  in  lucid  order  plac'd,. 
Not  even  thefe  a  fond  regard  engage. 
Or  bind  attention  to  th'  Hiftoric  page, 

9  If 


[   r~   3 

li  diftant  tribes  conpofe  th'  ill-cliofca  Tlieme, 

Whofe  favage  virtues  wake  no  warm  eilccm ;  260 

V/liere  Faith  and  Valour  Spring  horn  Honour's  grave, 

OnJy  to  form  tli'  Affaffin  and  the  Slave. 

From  Turkiili  tyrants,  ftain'd  with  fervile  gore. 

Enquiry  turns ;  and  Learning's  figlis  deplore, 

While  o'er  his  name  Negled's  cold  lliadow  rolls,         265 

A  wafte  of  Genius  in  the  toil  of  Knolles.  * 

There  are,  we  own,  whofe  magic  power  is  fuch, 

Their  hands  cmbellilh  whatfoe'er  they  touch  : 

Their  bright  Mofaic  fo  enchants  our  eyes, 

By  nice  Arrangement,  and  contrafted  Dies,  270 

What  mean  materials  in  the  texture  lurk, 

Serve  but  to  raife  the  wonder  ot  the  work. 

Yet  from  th'  Hiftorian  (as  fuch  powej  is  rare) 

The  choice  of  Matter  claims  no  trifling  care. 

'Tis  not  alone  colle<fled  Wealth's  difplay,  275 

Nor  the  proud  fabric  of  extended  Sway, 
That  mark  (tho'  both  th«  eye  of  Wonder  fill) 
The  happy  Subjcdl  for  Hiftoric  (kill : 

•Vcr.  266.     See    NOTE     XL 

^  Wherever 


t     73     ] 

Wherever  Nature,  tho'  in  narrow  fpace, 

Foflers,  by  Freedom's  aid,  a  liberal  race;  280 

Sees  Virtue  fave  them  from  Oppreflion's  den, 

And  cries  with  exultation,  "  Thefe  are  Men  ;" 

Tho'  in  Boeotia  or  Batavia  born. 

Their  deeds  the  Story  of  the  World  adorn. 

The  Subjed  fix'd,  with  force  and  beauty  fraught,  285 
Juft  Difpolition  claims  yet  deeper  thought ; 
To  caft  enlivening  Order's  lucid  grace 
O'er  all  the  crouded  fields  of  Time  and  Space  ; 
To  fhew  each  wheel  of  Power  in  all  its  force. 
And  trace  the  ftreams  of  Adion  from  their  fource  ;    290 
To  catch,  with  fpirit  and  precifion  join'd. 
The  varying  features  of  the  human  Mind  ; 
The  Grace,  the  Strength,  that  Nature's  children  draw 
From  Arts,  from  Science,  Policy,  and  Law  ; 
Opinion's  fafhion,  Wifdom's  firmer  plan,  295 

And  all  that  marks  the  charadler  of  Man. 
Of  all  the  parts,  that  Hifiory's  volume  fill, 
The  juft  Digrefiion  claims  the  niccft  fkill ; 
As  the  fwift  Hero,  in  the  Olympic  race, 
Ran  with  lefs  toil  along  the  open  fpace  ;  300 

L  But 


[     74     ] 

But  round  the  Goal  to  form  the  narrow  curve, 
Caird  forth  his  utmoft  ftrength  from  every  nerve. 

The  Subjedl's  various  powers  let  Study  tell  ! 
And  teach  th'  Hiftorian  on  wliat  points  to  dwell  ! 
How  in  due  fhades  to  link  each  meaner  part,  305, 

And  pour  on  nobler  forms  the  radiance  of  his  art  ! 
Tho'  Patriot  Love  the  curious  fpirit  fires 
With  third  to  hear  th'  atchievements  of  his  Sires  ; 
And  Britilh  ftory  wins  the  Britifh  mind 
With  all  the  charms  that  fond  attention  bind  ;  310 

Its  early  periods,  barbarous  and  remote, 
Pleafe  not,  tho'  drawn  by  Pens  of  nobleft  note  : 
O'er  thofe  rude  fcenes  Confufion's  fhadows  dwell, 
Beyond  the  power  of  Genius  to  difpell ; 
Mifts  !  which  ev'n  Milton's  fplendid  mind  enfliroud ; 
Loft  in  the  darknefs  of  the  Saxon  cloud  !  316^ 

Negled:  alone  repays  their  flight  offence, 
Whofe  wand'ring  wearies  our  bewilder'd  fenfe  : 
But  juft  Abhorrence  brands  his  guilty  name, 
Who  dares  to  vilify  his  Country's  fame  ;  320 

With  Slander's  rage  the  pen  of  Hiftory  grafp. 
And  pour  from  thence  the  poifon  of  the  Afp ; 

3  The 


[     75     ] 

The  murd'rous  falfehood,  fliiling  Honour's  breath  I 

The  flavifli  tenet,  Public  Virtue's  death  ! 

With  all  that  undermines  a  Nation's  health,  325 

And  robs  the  People  of  their  richeft  wealth  I 

Ye  tools  of  Tyranny  !  vvhofe  fervile  guile 

Would  thus  pollute  the  records  of  our  ifle. 

Behold  your  Leader  curft  with  public  hate, 

And  read  your  jull  reward  in  Brady's  fate  !  *  33a 

O  facred  Liberty !  fhall  Fadlion's  train 
Pervert  the  reverend  archives  of  thy  reign  ? 
Shall  flaves  traduce  the  blood  thy  votaries  fpilt, 
Blafpheming  Glory  with  the  name  of  Guilt  ? 
And  fhall  no  Son  of  thine  their  wiles  o'erwhelm,         335 
And  clear  the  ftory  of  thy  injur'd  realm  ? 
To  this  bright  tafk  fome  Britidi  fpirit  raife, 
With  powers  furpafllng  ev'n  a  Livv's  praife  ! 
Thro'  this  long  wildernefs  his  march  infpire, 
And  make  thy  temperate  flame  his  leading  fire  f         346 
Teach  his  keen  eye,  and  comprehenlive  foul, 
To  pierce  each  darker  part,  and  grafp  the  whole  ! 

*  Ver.  330.    Sec    NOTE  XII. 

L  2  Let 


[     76     ] 

Let  Truth's  undoubted  fignet  feal  his  page, 

And  Glory  guard  the  work  from  age  to  age  ! 

That  Britifn  minds  from  this  pure  fource  may  draw    345 

Senfe  of  thy  Rights,  and  paflion  for  thy  Law, 

W idiom  to  prize,  and  Honour,  that  afpircs 

To  reach  that  virtue  which  adorn'd  our  Sires  ! 

But  not  alone  our  native  land  attrads ; 
Far  different  Nations  boaft  their  fplcndid  fadls :  350 

In  ancient  Story  the  rich  fruits  unite- 
Of  civil  Wifdom  and  fublime  Delight  : 
At  Rome's  proud  name  Attention's  fpirits  rife, 
Rome,  the  firft  idol  of  our  infant  eyes  1 
Ufe  and  Importance  mark  the  vaft  defign,  355 

Clearly  to  trace  her  periods  of  Decline. 
Yet  here,  O  Gibbon  !  what  long  toils  enfue  ? 
How  winds  the  labyrinth  ?  how  fails  the  clue  ? 
Tho'  rude  materials  Time's  deep  trenches  fill, 
A  radiant  flrudlure  rifes  from  thy  fkill ;  360 

Whofc  fplendor,  fpringing  from  a  dreary  wafte, 
Enchants  the  wondering  eye  of  Public  Tafte. 
Thus  to  the  ancient  traveller,  whofe  way 
Acrofs  the  hideous  fands  of  Syria  lay. 

The 


[     77     ] 

The  Defart  blaz'd  with  fudden  glory  bright  ;  365 

And  rich  Pahnyra  rufh'd  upon  his  fight. 

But  O  !  what  foes  befet  each  honour'd  Name,- 

Advancing  in  the  path  of  letter'd  fame  ! 

To  ftop  thy  progrefsj  and  infult  thy  pen, 

The  fierce  Polemic  iffues  from  his  den.  370 

Think  not  my  Verfe  means  blindly  to  engage 

In  rafh  defence  of  thy  profaner  page  !' 

Tho'  keen  her  fpirit,  her  attrachment  fond, 

Bafe  fervice  cannot  fuit  with  Friendfliip's  bond  ; 

Too  firm  from  Duty's  facred  path  to  turn,  375 

She  breathes  an  honeft  figh  of  deep  concern, 

And  pities  Genius,  when  his  wild  career 

Gives  Faith  a  wound,  or  Innocence  a  fear. 

Humility  herfelf,  divinely  mild. 

Sublime  Religion^s  meek  and  modeft  child,  380 

Like  the  dumb  Son  of  Croesus,  in  the  ftrife,  * 

Where  Force  aflail'd  his  Father's  ficred  life. 

Breaks  filence,  and,  with  filial  duty  warm. 

Bids  thee  revere  her  Parent's  hallow'd  form  ! 


Yer.  381.     See    NOTE   XIIL. 


FaE 


[     78     ] 

Far  other  founds  the  ear  of  Learning  ftun,  385 

From  proud  Theology's  contentious  Son  ; 
Lefs  eager  to  corred,  than  to  revile,  * 
Rage  in  his  voice  !  and  Rancour  in  his  ftyle  ! 
His  idle  feoffs  with  coarfe  reproof  deride 
Thy  generous  thirft  of  Praife,  and  liberal  Pride  ;  390 

Since  thy  frank  fpirit  dares  that  wifh  avow, 
Which  Nature  owns,  and  Wifdom  muft  allow  1 
The  noble  Inftina,  Love  of  lafling  Fame,  f 
Was  wifely  planted  in  the  human  frame  : 
From  hence  the  brighteft  rays  of  Hiftory  flow  ;  395 

To  this  their  Vigour  and  their  Ufe  they  owe. 
Nor  fcorns  fair  Virtue  this  untainted  fource, 
From  hence  fhe  often  draws  her  lovely  force  : 
For  Heaven  this  paffion  with  our  life  combin'd, 
Which,  like  a  central  power,  impels  the  languid  mind.  400 
When,  clear  from  Envy's  cloud,  that  general  peft  ! 
It  burns  moft  brightly  in  the  Author's  breaft, 
Its  foothing  hopes  his  various  pains  beguile. 
And  give  to  Learning's  face  her  fweetcft  fmile : 

•  Ver.  387.     See    NOTE   XlVj 
f  Vcr.  393.     See    NOTE    XV. 

What 


40S 


4i(> 


[     79     J 

What  joy,  to  think  his  Genius  may  create 
Exiftence  far  beyond  the  common  date  I 
His  Wealth  of  Mind  to  lateft  ages  give, 
And  in  Futurity's  alFedion  live  ! 
From  unborn  beauty,  flill  to  Fancy  dear, 
Draw  with  foft  magic  the  delightful  tear ; 
Or  thro'  the  bofom  of  far  diltant  Youth, 
Spread  the  warm  glow  of  Liberty  and  Truth  ! 

O  Gibbon  !  by  thy  frank  ambition  taught, 
Let  me  like  thee  maintain  th'  enlivening  thought^ 
That,  from  Oblivion's  killing  cloud  fecure. 
My  Hope  may  profper  and  my  Verfe  endure  : 
While  thy  bright  Name,  on  Hiftory's  car  fublime. 
Rolls  in  juft  triumph  o'er  the  field  of  Time, 
May  I,  unfaltering,  thy  long  march  attend, 
No  flattering  Slave  I  but  an  applauding  Friend  I  42a 

Difplay  th'  imperfed:  fketch  I  fondly  drew. 
Of  that  wide  province,  where  thy  laurels  grew  ; 
And,  honour'd  with  a  wreath  of  humbler  bays,. 
Join  the  loud  Pasan  of  thy  lafting  praife  ! 


NOTES 


415 


NOTES. 


Indodli  difcant  et  ament  meminifle  periti. 


M 


[     8j    ] 


NOTE 


T  O     T  H   E 


FIRST      EPISTLE. 


NOTE   I.     Verse  4. 
'T^H'  unfailing  urns  of  Praife  and  CenfureJiandJ] 


^OlOt    yXp   TS    TTl&Ol    y.XTXK£l'a.TXl    iv  A/Cf   8  J« 

Aupcov,   oix  ^i^xffi,  HfiCJtcov    fVfpof   Xf    ixuV 

Two  urns  by  Jove's  high  throne  have  ever  flood. 
The  fource  of  evil  one,  and  one  of  good. 

Pope's  Iliad  xxiv.  v.  SS^. 

NOTE    II.      Verse  s5- 

Tet  one  excelling  Greek,  &c.]  Dionyfius  of  H.dicarnaflus,  the 
celebrated  hiftorian  and  critic  of  the  Auguftan  ase,  who  fettled  in 
Italy,  as  he  himfelf  informs  us,  on  the  clofe  of  the  civil  war.  He 
has  addreffed  a  little  treatife,  containing  a  critique  on  the  elder 
hiftorians,  to  his  friend  Cnsus  Pompeius,  whom  the  French  cri- 
tics fuppofe  to  be  Pompey  the  Great;  but  Reiike,  the  laft  editor 

M  2  of 


8^  NOTESTOTHE 

of  Dionyfuis,  has  funk  him  into  a  petty  Greek  grammarian,  the 
client  or  frcedman  of  that  iHuftrious  Roman. 

In   this  treatife  of  Dionyfius,  and  in   one   dill    longer,    on    the 
charadler  of  Thucydides,  tiicrc  are  fomc  excellent  hiftorical  pre- 
cepts, which  Mr.  Spelman  has  judicioufly  thrown  together  in  the 
preface   to   his  admirable  tranflation  of  the  Roman  Antiquities. — 
He  introduces   them    by   the    following  obfervation,  which  may 
ferve    perhaps    to  recommend   the  fubjedl  of  the  prefent  poem. — 
"  So  much  has  been  faid,  both  by  the  antients  and  the  moderns,  in 
praife  of  the  advantages  refulting  from  the  fludy  of  Hillory,  parti- 
cularly by  Diodorus   Siculus  among  the  former,  in  the  noble  pre- 
face to  his  Hiftorical  Colledlions  ;  and  by  the  late  Lord  Bolingbroke, 
among  the  moderns,  in  his  admirable  letter  on  that  fubjed: ;  that  I 
am  aftoniflied  no  treatife  has  ever  yet  appeared  in  any  age,  or  any 
language,  profciledly  written  to  prefcribe  rules  for  writing  Hiftory  ;. 
a  work  allowed   to   be   of  the  greatell:   advantage  of  all  others  to 
m-inkind,  the  rcpofitory  of  truth,  fraught  with  Icflbns  both  of  pub- 
lic and  private  virtue,  and  enforced  by  ftronger  motives   than  pre- 
cepts— by  examples.    Rules  for  Poetry  and  Rhetoric  have  been  writ- 
ten by  many  authors,  both  antien-t  and  modern,  as    if  delight  and 
eloquence  were  of  greater  confcquence  than  inftrudlion  :  however. 
Rhetoric  was  a  part  of  Hiftory,  as  treated  by  the  antients  i   not  the 
principal  part  indeed,  but  fubfervient  to  the  principal  ;  and  calcu- 
lated  to  apply   the  fads  exhibited  by   the  narration.     I   know  it 
may  be  faid,  that  many  antient  hiftories   are  ftill  preferved,    and 
that  thefe  models  are  fufBcient  guides  for  modern  Hiftorians,  with- 
out particular  rules  :  {o  had  the  Greeks  Poets  of  all  denominations 
in  their  hands,  and  yet  Ariftotle  thought  it  necefiary  to  prefcribe 
particular  rules  to  his  countrymen  for  applying  thofe  examples  to 
every  branch  of  Poetry  :   I  wifli  he  had  done  the  fame  in  Hiftory; 
if  he  had,  it  is  very  probable  that  his  precepts  would  have  rendered 
the  beft  of  our  modern  Hiftories  more  perfect,  and  the  worft,  lefs 
abominable.— Since  the  refurreftiou  of  letters,  the  want  of  fuch  a 
guide  has  been  complained  of  by  many  authors,  and  particularly 
9  by 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  8-j 

by  Rapin,  in  the  preface  to  his  Hiftory  of  England." — Spelman, 
page  15.  But  this  ingenious  and  learned  writer  fpeaks  a  little  too 
ilrongly,  in  faying  no  treatife  has  ever  appeared  in  any  age  or  lan- 
guage, containing  rules  for  Hiftory.  There  is  one  in  Latin  by  the 
celebrated  Voffius,  entitled  Ars  Hiftorica ;  another  by  Hubertus 
Folieta,  an  elegant  Latin  writer,  of  the  i6th  century,  on  whom 
Thuanus  beftows  the  higheft  commendation ;  and  Mafcardi,  an 
Italian  critic,  patronifed  by  Cardinal  Mazarine,  has  written  alfo 
dell  Arte  Hiflorica.  The  curious  reader  may  find,  a  fmgular  anec- 
dote relating  to  the  publication  of  this  work  in  Bayle,  under  the 
article  Mafcardi. — But  to  return  to  Dionyfius.  In  comparing  He- 
rodotus and  Thucydides,  he  cenfures  the  latter  with  a  degree  of 
feverity  unwarranted  by  truth  and  reafon  :  indeed  this  feverity  ap- 
peared fo  ftriking  to  the  learned  Fabricius,  that  he  feems  to  confi- 
der  it  as  a  Idnd  of  proof,  that  the  critical  works  of  Dionyfius  wer» 
compofcd  in  the  hafty  fervor  of  youth.  They  are  however  in  gene- 
ral, to  ufe  the  words  of  the  fame  ingenious  author,  eximia  &  ledhi 
dignaj,  and  a  valuable  critic  of  our  own  country,  who  refembles 
Dionyfius  in  elegance  of  compofition,  and  perhaps  in  feverity  of 
judgment,  has  fpoken  yet  more  warmly  in  their  fiwour. — See 
Warton's  Ellay  on  Pope,   3d  edit,  page  175. 


NOTE    III.      Verse  63. 

^d  Liician  !  thou.,  of  Humour  s  fons.  fupreme  !"]  The  little  treatiler 
of  Lucian  "  How  Hiftory  (hould  be  written,"  may  be  confidered  as 
one  of  the  mofl  valuable  produdions  of  that  lively  author ;  it  is 
not  only  written  with  great  vivacity  and  v^'it,.  but  is  entitled  to  the 
fuperior  praife  of  breathing  moft  exalted  fentiments  of  liberty  and 
virtue.  There  is  a  peculiar  kind  of  fublimity  in  his  defcription 
of  an  accomplifiied  Hiftorian. 

Tc/sT<?f  o'jv  fJi3i  0  avyypxpsvcscTu:),  c^o^oq,  ahuxsToc,  ihsv^spo?,  -Trit-pp-^ricii 


So  NOTESTOTHE 

It  is  a  piece  ofjuftice  due  to  our  own  country  to  remark,  that  in 
the  3d  volume  of  the  World,  there  is  a  ludicrous  effay  on  Hiftory 
by  Mr.  Cambridge,  which  is  written  with  all  the  Ipirit  and  all 
the  humour  of  Lucian. 

NOTE    IV.      Verse  63. 
Androfe  a  Xenophon  infelf-ejieem.']  Oi'S"eif  a  tic  ax  iCTopixv  s-jyyfV.l^ei' 

Lucian.  edit.  Riollay,  p.  6. 

NOTE    V.      V  E  R  s  E  77. 

lu  Egypf  once  a  dread  tribunal Jiood.'\  This  fingular  inftitution, 
which  is  alluded  to  by  many  of  our  late  authors,  is  related  at  large 
in  the  Firft  Book  of  Diodorus  Siculusj  and  as  the  paflage  is  cu- 
rious, the  following  free  tranflation  of  it  may  afford  entertainment 
to  the  Englilh  reader — "  Thofe  who  prepare  to  bury  a  relation, 
give  notice  of  the  day  intended  for  the  ceremony  to  the  judges, 
and  to  all  the  friends  of  the  deceafed  ;  informing  them,  that  the 
body  will  pafs  over  the  lake  of  that  diilridl  to  which  the  dead  be- 
longed :  when,  on  the  judges  being  aflembled,  to  the  number  of 
more  than  forty,  and  ranging  themfelves  in  a  femicircle  on  the 
farther  fide  of  the  lake,  the  veffel  is  fet  afloat,  which  thofe  who 
fupcrintend  the  funeral  have  prepared  for  this  purpofe.  This  veflel 
is  managed  by  a  pilot,  called  in  the  Egyptian  language  Charon  ;  and 
hence  they  fay,  that  Orpheus,  travelling  in  old  times  into  Egypt, 
and  feeing  this  ceremony,  formed  his  fable  of  the  infernal  regions, 
10  partly 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  67 

partly  from  what  he  faw,  and  partly  from  invention.  The  vefiel 
beins  launched  on  the  lake,  before  the  coffin  which  contains  the 
body  is  put  on  board,  the  law  permits  all,  who  are  fo  inclined,  to 
produce  an  accuf^ition  againft  it. — If  any  one  fheps  forth,  and  proves, 
that  the  deceafed  has  led  an  evil  life,  the  judges  pronounce  f^^ntence, 
and  the  body  is  precluded  from  burial  j  but  if  the  accufer  is  con- 
vidled  of  injuftice  in  his  charge,  he  falls  himfelf  under  a  confi- 
derable  penalty.  When  no  accufer  appears,  or  when  the  accufer  is 
proved  to  be  an  unfair  one,  the  relations,  who  are  aflenibled, 
change  their  expreffions  of  forrow  into  encomiums  on  the  dead: 
yet  they  do  not,  like  the  Greeks,  fpeak  in  honour  of  his  family, 
becaufe  they  confider  all  Egyptians  as  equally  well-born ;  but  they 
fet  forth  the  education  and  manners  of  his  youth,  his  piety  and 
juftice  in  maturer  life,  his  moderation  and  every  virtue  by  which 
he  was  diftinguifhed  ;  and  they  fupplicate  the  infernal  Deities  to 
receive  him  as  an  aflbciate  among  the  bleft.  The  multitude  join 
their  acclamations  of  applaufe  in  this  celebration  of  the  dead,  whom 
they  confider  as  going  to  pafs  an  eternity  among  the  jufi:  below  *."— 
Such  is  the  defcription  which  Diodorus  gives  of  this  funereal 
judicature,  to  which  even  the  kings  of  Egypt  were  fubjedt.  The 
fame  author  afferts,  that  many  fovereigns  had  been  thus  judicially 
deprived  of  the  honours  of  burial  by  the  indignation  of  their  people  : 
and  that  the  terrors  of  fuch  a  fate  had  a  moft  falutary  influence  on 
the  virtue  of  their  kings. 

The  Abbe  TerrafTon  has  drawn  a  fublime  pidure  of  this  fepul- 
chral  procefs,  and  indeed  of  many  Egyptian  Myfleries,  in  his  very 
learned  and  ingenious  romance.  The  Life  of  Sethos. 


NOTE    VI.      Verse   115. 

'T&e  infant  Mufe,  ambitions  at  her  birth, 

Rofe  the  young   herald  of  heroic    ivorth.']  "  Not  only  the  Greek 

*  Diodor.  Siculi  Lib.  i.    T«  /« [AiWovra  Gatti^^ai,  &c. 

writers 


ti  NOTESTOTHE 

writers  give  a  concurrent  teflimony  concerning  the  priority  of 
hiftorical  Verfe  to  Profej  but  the  records  of  all  nations  unite 
in  confirming  it.  The  oldeft  compofitions  among  the  Arabs  are 
in  Rythm  or  rude  Verfe;  and  are  otten  cited  as  proofs  of  the 
truth  of  their  fubfequent  Hiftory,  The  accounts  we  have  of 
the  Peruvian  ftory  confirm  the  lame  fadt  j  for  Garcilaflb  tells  us, 
tliat  he  compiled  a  part  of  his  Commentaries  from  the  antient 
fongs  of  the  country — Nay  all  the  American  tribes,  who  have  any 
compofitions,  are  found  to  eftablifli  the  fame  truth — Northern 
Europe  contributes  its  fhare  of  teftimony :  for  there  too  we  find 
the  Scythian  or  Runic  fongs  (many  of  them  hiftorical)  to  be  the 
oldeft:  compofitions  among  thefe  barbarous  nations." 

Browne's  DiftTertation  on  Poetry,  &c.  Page  50, 

NOTE  VII.      Verse  131. 

Buf  ill  the  center  of  thofe  vaft  abodes, 

Wbofe  mighty  majs  the  land  of  Egypt  loads.  ^  This  account  of  the 
Pyramids  I  have  adopted  from  the  very  learned  Mr.  Bryant,  part 
of  whofe  ingenious  obfervation  upon  them  I  fliall  here  prefent  to 
the  reader. 

One  great  purpofe  in  all  eminent  and  expenftve  flruftures  is  to 
pleafe  the  fcranger  and  traveller,  and  to  win  their  admiration.  This 
is  elfefted  fometimes  by  a  mixture  of  magnificence  and  beauty : 
at  other  times  folely  by  immcnfity  and  grandeur.  The  latter 
fcems  to  have  been  the  objedl  in  the  ereding  of  thofe  celebrated 
buildings  in  Egypt:  and  they  certainly  have  anfwered  the  defign. 
For  not  only  the  vaftnefs  of  their  ftrudture,  and  the  area  which  they 
occupy,  but  the  ages  they  have  endured,  and  the  very  uncertainty 
of  their  hiftory,  which  runs  fo  fur  back  into  the  depths  of  antiquity, 
produce  altogether  a  wonderful  veneration;  to  which  buildings 
DK)re  exquifite  and  embclliflied  are  feldom  entitled.  Many  have 
luppofeJ,  that  they  were  defigncd  for  places  of  fcpulture  :  and  it 
has  bc:;n  Alfirmed  by  Herodotus^,  and  other  ancient  writers.     But 

they 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  89 

they  fpokc  by  guefs  :  and  I  have  fliewn  by  many  Inftances,  how 
ufual  it  was  for  the  Grecians  to  miftake  temples  for  tombs.  If  the 
chief  Pyramid,  were  defigned  for  a  phce  of  burial,  what  occafion 
was  there  for  a  well,  and  for  pa%es  of  communication  which  led 
to  other  buildings  ?  Near  the  Pyramids  are  apartments  of  a  wonder- 
ful fabric,  which  extend  in  length  one  thouilind  four  hundred  feet, 
and  about  thirty  in  depth.  They  have  been  cut  out  of  the  hard  rock, 
and  brought  to  a  perpendicular  by  the  artift's  chizel ;  and  through 
dint  of  labour  fafhioned  as  they  now  appear.  They  were  undoubt- 
edly defigned  for  the  reception   of  priefls  ;  and  confeq-uently  were 

not  appendages  to  a  tomb,  but  to  a  temple  of  the  Deity 

The  priefts  of  Egypt  -delighted  in  obfcurity;  and  they  probably 
came  by  the  fubteri-aneous  paffages  of  the  building  to  the  dark 
chambers  within  ;  where  they  performed  their  luftrations,  and  other 
nodturnal  rites.  Many  of  the  ancient  temples  in  this  country  were 
caverns  in  the  rock,  enlarged  by  art,  and  cut  out  into  numberlefs 
dreary  apartments  :  for  no  nation  upon  earth  was  £0  addided  to 
gloom  and  melancholy  as  the  Egyptians. 

Bryant's  Analyfis,  Vol.  III.  Page  529. 
The  royal  geographer  Abulfeda  feems  to  confirm  the  idea  of  this 
ingenious  author  ^  or  at  leaft  to  have  been  equally  perfuaded, 
that  the  Pyramids  were  riot  places  of  burial ;  for,  fpeaking  of  them', 
in  his  defcription  of  Egypt,  he  fays  :  "  funt  autem,  ut  narratur,  fe- 
pulcra  veterum  :  ohe  vero  quam  narranturmulta,  quorum  non  certa 
^es.!"  Abul.  Egypt.  Edit.  Michadis,  Page  10. 


NOTE    VIII.      Verse  194. 

Of  the  fierce  Omar,  &c,]  The  number  of  volumes  deflroyed 
yi  the  plunder  of  Alexandria  is  faid  to  have  been  fo  great,  that  al- 
though they  were  diftributed  to  heat  four  thoufand  baths  in  that 
city,  i*  was  fix  months  before  they  were  confumed.  When  a  pe- 
tition was  lent  to_  the  Chaliph  Omar  for  the  prefervation   of  this 

N  mao;nificent 


-a* 


go  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 

magnificent  library,  he  replied,  in  the  true  fpirit  of  bigotry,  "  What 
is  contained  in  thefe  books  you  mention,  is  either  agreeable  to  what 
is  written  in  the  book  of  God  (meaning  the  Alcoran)  or  it  is  not : 
if  it  be,  then  the  Alcoran  is  futficient  without  them  :  if  otherwife, 
'tis  fit  they  (hould  be  deflroyed." 

Ockley's  Hillory  of  the  Saracens,  Vol.  I..  Page  313. 

NOTE    IX.      Verse"  207. 

Tie  dome  expands! — Behold  tU  Hijioric  Sire!]  Herodotus,  to 
whom  Cicero  has  given  the  honourable  appellation  of  The  Father 
of  Hiftory,  was  born  in  Halicarnaffus,  a  city  of  Caria,  four  years 
before  the  invafion  of  Xerxes,  in  the  year  484  before  Chrift.  The 
time  and  place  of  his  death  are  uncertain ;  but  his  countrymaa 
Dionyfius  informs  us,  that  he  lived  to  the  beginning  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnefian  war ;  and  Marcellinus,  the  Greek  author  who  wrote  a 
life  of  Thucydides,  affirms  there  was  a  monument  eredted  to  thefe 
two  great  Hiftorians  in  a  burial-place  belonging  to  the  family  of 
Miltiades. 

There  is  hardly  any  author,  antient  or  modern,  who  has  been 
more  warmly  commended,  or  more  vehemently  cenfured,  than  this 
eminent  Hiftorian.  But  even  the  fevere  Dionyfius  declares,  he  is 
one  of  thofe  enchanting  writers,  whom  you  perufe  to  the  laft  fyl- 
lable  with  plcafure,  and  ftill  wi(h  for  more. — Plutarch  himfelf,  who 
has  made  the  moft  violent  attack  on  his  veracity,  allows  him  all 
the  merit  of  beautiful  compofition.  From  the  heavy  charges 
brought  againfl:  him  by  the  anticnts,  the  famous  Henry  Stephens, 
and  his  learned  friend  Camerarius,  have  defended  their  favourite 
Hiftorian  with  great  fpirit.  But  Herodotus  has  found  a  more  for- 
midable antagonift  in  a  learned  and  animated  writer  of  our  own 
times,  to  whom  the  public  have  been  lately  indebted  for  his  having 
opened  to  them  new  mines  of  Oriental  learning. — If  the  ingenious 
Mr.  Richardfon  could  efi^eilually  fupport  his  Perfian  fyftem,  the 
great  Father  of  the  Grecian  ftory  mull  fink  into  a  fabulifl  as  low  in 

point 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  91 

point  of  veracity  as  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth.  It  mufl:  be  owned, 
that  feveral  eminent  Writers  of  our  country  have  treated  him  as 
fuch.  Another  Orientalift,  who,  in  his  elegant  Preface  to  the  Life 
of  Nader  Shaw,  has  drawn  a  fpirited  and  judicious  fketch  of  many 
capital  Hiftorians,  declares,  in  paffing  judgment  on  Herodotus,  that 
*'  his  accounts  of  the  Perfian  affairs  are  at  leaft  doubtful,  if  not 
fabulous." — Hume,  I  think,  goes  ftill  farther,  and  fays,  in  one  of 
his  effays — "  The  firft  page  of  Thucydides  is,  in  my  opinion,  the 
commencement  of  real  Hiftory."  For  my  own  part,  I  confefs  my- 
felf  more  credulous  :  the  relation,  which  Herodotus  has  given  of 
the  repulfe  of  Xerxes  from  Greece,  is  fo  delightful  to  the  mind, 
and  fo  animating  to  public  virtue,  that  I  fhould  be  forry  to  num- 
ber it  among  the  Grecian  fables. 

— — Et  madidis  can  tat  quas  Soflratus  alis. 

NOTE    X.      Verse  210. 

As  the  fair  figure  of  his  favour  d  ^leen."]  Artemifia  of  Halicar- 
naffus,  who  commanded  in  perfon  the  five  veffels,  which  ih^  con- 
tributed to  the  expedition  of  Xerxes.  On  hearing  that  flie  had 
funk  a  Grecian  galley  in  the  fea-fight  at  Salamis,  he  exclaimed, 
that  his  men  had  proved  women,  and  his  women  men. 

Herod.  Lib.  VIII.  p.  660.  Edit.  Weff. 

NOT  E    XI.      Verse  213. 

Soft  as  the  fir  earn,  whofe  dimpling  waters  play  J\  Sine  ullis  fale- 
bris  quafi  fedatus  amnis  fluit. 

Cicero  in  Oratore. 

NOTE    XII.      Verse  229. 

But  mark  the  Youth,  in  dumb  delight  immers'd !]  Thucydides, 
the  fon  of   Olorus,  was   born   at   Athens  in   the  year  47 1   before 

N  2  Chnfl, 


^2  NOTESTOTHE 

Chrift,  and  is  faid,  at  the  age  of  15,  to  have  heard  Herodotus 
recite  his  Hiftory  at  the  Olympic  games. — The  generous  youth 
was  charmed  even  to  tears,  and  the  HiAorian  congratulated 
Olorus  on  thefe  marks  of  genius,  which  he  difcovered  in  his  fon. 
—Being  inverted  with  a  military  command,  he  was  banilhed  from 
Athens  at  the  age  of  48,  by  the  injuftice  of  faction,  becaufe  he 
had  unfortunately  failed  in  the  defence  of  Amphipolis. — He  retired 
into  Thrace,  and  is  reported  to  have  married  a  Thracian  lady  pof- 
fefled  of  valuable  mines  in  that  country. — At  the  end  of  20  years 
his  fentence  of  baniHiment  was  revoked.  Some  authors  affirm 
that  he  returned  into  Athens,  and  was  treacheroufly  killed  in  that 
city.  But  others  alTert  that  he  died  in  Thrace,  at  the  advanced  age 
of  80,  leaving  his  Hiftory  unfiniilied. 

Marcellinus  ;  and  Dodwell.  Annales  Thucydid. 

•    NOTE    Xlil.      Verse  255. 

A  generous  guardian  of  a  rival's  fame.'\  It  is  faid  by  Diogenes 
Laertius,  that  Xenophon  firft  brought  the  Hiftory  of  Thucydides 
into  public  reputation,  though  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  af- 
fume  to  himfelf  all  the  glory  of  that  work.  This  amiable  Phi- 
lofopher  and  Hillorian  was  born  at  Athens,  and  became  early  a 
difciple  of  Socrates,  who  is  faid  by  Strabo  to  have  faved  his  life 
in  battle.  About  the  50th  year  of  his  age,  according  to  the  con- 
jecfture  of  his  admirable  tranflator  Mr.  Spelman,  he  engaged  in 
the  expedition  of  Cyius,  and  accomplifhed  his  immortal  retreat 
in  the  fpace  of  i  5  months. — The  jcaloufy  of  the  Athenians  ba- 
rifhed  him  from  his  native  city,  for  engaging  in  the  fervice  of 
Sparta  and  of  Cyrus. — On  his  return  therefore  he  retired  to  Scillus, 
a  town  of  Elis,  where  he  built  a  temple  to  Diana,  which  he  men- 
tions in  his  Epiftles,  and  devoted  his  leifure  to  philofophy  and 
rural  fports. — But  commotions  arifing  in  that  country,  he  removed 
to  Corinth,  where  he  is  fuppoftd  to  have  written  his  Grecian 
Hiftory,    and  to  have  died  at   the  age  of  ninety,  in  the  year  360 

9  before 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  93 

before  Chrift.  By  his  wife  Philefia  he  had  two  fons,  Diodorus  and 
Gryllus.  The  latter  rendered  himfelf  immortal  by  killing  Epa- 
minondas  in  the  famous  battle  of  Mantinea,  but  perifhed  in  that 
exploit,  which  his  father  lived  to  record. 


NOTE    XIV.      Verse  277. 

Homes  haughty  genius,  who  enjlavd  the  Greek, 

In  Grecian  la?iguage  deigns  at  Jirji  to  fpeak.\  Some  of  the  moft 
illuftrious  Romans  are  known  to  have  written  Hiftories  in 
Greek.  The  luxuriant  Lucullus,  when  he  was  very  young, 
compofed.  in  that  language  a  Hiftory  of  the  Marli,  which,  Plu- 
tarch fays,  was  extant  in  his  time — Cicero  wrote  a  Greek  Com- 
mentary on  his  own  confulfliip — and  the  elegant  Atticus  produced 
a  fimilar  work  on  the  fame  fubjedt,  that  did  not  perfectly  fatisfy 
the  nice  ear  of  his  friend,  as  we  learn  from  the  following  curious 
paflage  in  a  letter  concerning  the  Hiftory  in  queftion: — "  Quanquam 
tua  ilia  (legi  enim  libenter)  horridula  mihi  atque  incompta  vifa 
funt :  fed  tamen  erant  ornata  hoc  ipfo,  quod  ornamenta  neglexe- 
rant,  et  ut  mulieres,  ideo  bene  olere,  quia  nihil  olebant,  vide- 
bantur."  Epift.  ad  Atticum.  Lib.  II.  Ep.  i. 

NOTE    XV.      Verse  283.. 

Thou  friend  of  Scipio  !  vers'd  in  IVar's  alarms.'\  Polybius,  born 
at  Megalopolis  in  Arcadia,  205  years  before  Chrift. — He  was 
trained  to  arms  under  the  celebrated  Philopoemen,  and  is  de- 
fcribed  by  Plutarch  carrying  the  urn  of  that  great  but  unfortu- 
nate General  in  his  funeral  proceflion.  He  rofe  to  conliderable 
honours  in  his  own  country,  but  was  compelled  to  vifit  Rome 
with  other  principal  Achseans,  who  were  detained  there  as 
pledges  for  the  fubmiffion  of  their  ftate. — From  hence  he  became 
intimate  with  tlie  fecond  Seipio  Africanus,  and  was  prefent  with 
him  at  the  demolition  of  Carthage. — He  law  Corinth  alfo  plun- 
dered 


94  NOTES      TOT  HE 

dered  by  Mummius,  and  thence  pafling  through  the  cities  of  Achaia, 
reconciled  them  to  Rome. — He  extended  his  travels  into  Egypt, 
France,  and  Spain,  that  he  might  avoid  fuch  geographical  errors 
as  he  has  cenfured  in  other  writers  of  Hiftory.  He  lived  to  the  age 
of  82,  and  died  of  an  illnefs  occafioned  by  a  fall  from  his  horfe. 

Fabricius,  Bibliotheca  Grajca. 

In  clofing  this  concife  account  of  the  capital  Greek  Hiftorians, 
I  cannot  help  oblerving,  that   our  language  has  been  greatly  en- 
riched, in  the  courfe  of  the  prefent  century,  by  fuch  tranflations  of 
thefe  Authors  as  do  great  honour  to  our  country,  and  are  at  leaft 
equal  to  any  which  other  nations  have  produced. 

In  the  chief  Roman  Hiftorians  we  feem  to  have  been  lefs  fortu- 
nate ;  but  from  the  fpecimen  which  Mr.  Aikin  has  lately  given  the 
public  in  the  fmaller  pieces  of  Tacitus,  we  may  hope  to  fee  an 
excellent  verfion  of  that  valuable  author,  who  has  been  hitherto 
ill  treated  in  our  language,  and  among  all  the  antients  there  is 
none  perhaps  whom  it  is  more  difficult  to  tranflate  with  fidelity 
and  fpirit. 

NOTE    XVI.       Verse   301. 

Sententious  Salluji  leads  her  lofty  train.']  This  celebrated  Hifto- 
rian,-  who  from  the  irregularity  of  his  life,  and  the  beauty  of 
his  writings,  has  been  called,  not  unhappily,  the  Bolingbrokc 
of  Rome,  was  born  at  Amiternum,  a  town  of  the  Sabines. — 
For  thfe  profligacy  of  his  early  life  he  was  expelled  the  fenate, 
but  reftored  by  the  intereft  of  Julius  Ca^fir,  who  gave  him 
the  command  of  Numidia,  which  province  he  is  faid  to  have 
plundered  by  the  mofli:  infamous  extortion,  purchafing  with  part 
of  this  treafure  thofe  rich  and  extenfive  pofTelfions  on  the  Quirinal 
Hill,  fo  celebrated  by  the  name  of  the  Horti  Salluftiani. — He  died 
in  the  70th  year  of  his  age,  four  years  before  the  battle  of  Adlium, 
and  ■^^  before  the   Chrillian  aera.     His  enmity  to  Cicero  is  well 

known, 


FIRST      EPISTLE. 


95 


known,  and  perhaps  it  had  fome  influence  on  the  peculiarity  of  his 
didiion — perfonal  animofity  might  make  him  endeavour  to  form  a 
ftyle  as  remote  as  poflible  from  the  redundant  language  of  the  im- 
mortal Orator,  whofe  turbulent  wife,  Terentia,  he  is  faid  to  have 
married  after  her  divorce.     This  extraordinary  woman  is  reported 
to  have  lived  to  the  age  of  lo?,  to  have  married  MelTala,  her  third 
hufband,  and  Vibius  Rufus  her  fourth. — The  latter  boafted,   with 
the  joy  of  an  Antiquarian,  that  he  poiTefled  two  of  the  greaiefl  cu- 
riofities  in  the  world,  namely  Terentia,  who  had  been  Cicero's  wife, 
and  the  chair   in  which  Ca;far  was  killed. ^ — St.   Jerom;  and  Dio 
Cassius,  quoted  by  Middleton  in  his  life  of  Cicero. But  to  re- 
turn to  Salluft. — His  Roman  Hiftory,  in  iix  books,  from  the  death 
of  Sylla   to    the  confpiracy  of  Catiline,  the  great  work  from  which 
he  chiefly   derived  his  glory  among  the  Antients,   is   unfortunately 
lofl:,  excepting  a  few  fragments  ; — but  his  two  detached  pieces  of 
Hiftory,  which   happily  remain  entire,    are  fufficient  to  juftify  the 
great  encomiums  he  has  received  as  a  writer. — He  has  had  the  fin- 
gular  honour  to  be  twice   tranflated  by   a   royal  hand — firft  by  our 
Elizabeth,   according  to  Camden  ;  and  fecondly  by  the  Infant  Don 
Gaoriel,  whofe  Spanifli  verfion    of    this   elegant   Hiftorian,   lately 
printed  in  folio,  is  one  of  the  moft  beautiful  books  that  any  coun- 
try has  produced  iince  the  invention  of  printing. 

NOTE    XVII.       Verse   316. 

In  bright  pre-emhie?ice,  that  Greece  might  own, 

Sublimer  Livy  claims  th'  Hijioric  throne.']  All  the  little  per- 
fonal account,  that  can  be  coUeded  of  Livy,  amounts  only  to 
this — that  he  was  born  at  Patavium,  the  modern  Padua  ^  that  he 
was  chofen  by  Auguftus  to  fuperintend  the  education  of  the  ftupid 
Claudius;  that  he  was  rallied  by  the  Emperor  for  his  attachment 
to  the  caufe  of  the  Republic  ;  and  that  he  died  in  his  own  coun- 
try in  the  4th  year  of  Tiberius,  at  the  age  of  76. — There  is  a  paffage 
in  one    of  Pliny's    letters,  which,  as  it  fhev/s   the  high  and  ex- 

10  tenfive 


96  NOTES      TO      THE 

tenfive  reputation  of  our  Hiftorlaii  during  his  life,  I  fliall  prefent 
to  the  reader  in  the  words  of  Piiny'.s  moil  elegant  tranflator. — "  Do 
you  remember  to  have  read  of  a  certain  inhabitant  of  the  city  of 
Cadiz,  who  was  fo  ftruck  with  the  illuftrious  charadler  of  Livy, 
that  he  travelled  to  Rome  on  purpofe  to  fee  that  great  Genius; 
and   as  foon    as   he   had    fatisfied   his    curiofitv,   returned   home 

again?" — Melmoth's   Pliny,  Vol.  I.   Page  71. A  veneration 

ilill  more  extraordinary  was  paid  to  this  great  author  by  Alphonfo 
King  of  Naples,  who  in  1451  font  Panormita  as  his  Ambaflador  to 
the  Venetians,  in  whofe  dominion  the  bones  of  Livy  had  been 
lately  difcovered,  to  beg  a  relic  of  this  celebrated  Hiftorian— • 
They  prefented  him  with  an  arm-bone,  and  the  prefent  is  recorded 
in  an  infcription  preferved  at  Padua,  which  the  curious  reader  may 
find  in  Voflius  de  Hiftoricis  Latinis.  This  Angular  anecdote  is 
alfo  related  in  Bayle,  under  the  article  Panormita. Learning  per- 
haps never  fuftained  a  greater  lofs,  in  any  fingle  author,  than  by 
the  deftrudlion  of  the  latter  and  more  interefling  part  of  Livy. — ' 
Several  eminent  moderns  have  indulged  the  pleating  expedtation  that 
the  entire  work  of  this  noble  Hiftorian  might  yet  be  recovered. — 
It  has  been  faid  to  exift  in  an  Arabic  verfion  :  and  even  a  compleat 
copy  of  the  original  is  fuppofed  to  have  been  extant  as  late  as  the 
year  163  1,  and  to  have  perifhed  at  that  time  in  the  plunder  of  Mag- 
deburgh. — That  munificent  patron  of  learning,  Leo  the  Xth,  ex- 
erted the  moll:  generous  zeal  to  refcuc  from  oblivion  the  valuable 
treafure,  which  one  of  his  mofl:  bigotted  prcdeceflbrs,  Gregory  the 
Great,  had  expelled  from  every  Chriftian  library. — Bayle  has  pre- 
ferved, under  the  article  Leo,  tv\'o  curious  original  letters  of  that 
Pontiff,  concerning  his  hopes  of  recovering  Livy;  which  afford 
moft  honourable  proofs  of  his  liberality  in  the  caufe  of  letters. 


NOTE 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  97 


NOTE    XVIII.      Verse  329. 

Yet,  like  the  matchlefs,  7mit  Hated  frame, 

I'd  ■which  great  Angela  bequeath' d  his  nawe.]  The  trunk  of  a 
ftatue  of  Hercules  by  Apollonius  the  Athenian,  univerfally 
called  the  Torfo  of  Michael  Angelo,  from  its  having  been  the 
favourite  fludy  of  that  divine  Artift.— He  is  faid  to  have  made 
out  the  com  pleat  figure  in  a  little  model  of  wax,  ftill  preferved 
at  Florence,  and  reprefenting  Hercules  repofing  after  his  labours.— 
The  figure  is  fitting  in  a  penfive  pofture,  with  an  elbow  refling 
on  the  knee. 

NOTE    XIX.      Verse  337. 

Sarcajlic  Tacitus,  abrupt  and  dark.']  Tacitus  was  born,   according 
to  the  conjedlure  of  Lipfius,  in  the  clofe  of  the  reign  of  Claudius  : 
paffing  through   various  public   honours,  he  rofe  at  length    to  the 
confular  dignity,  under  Nerva,  in  the  year  of  Chrift  97.     The  date 
of  his  death  is  unknown,   but  he  is  faid  to  have  lived  happily  to 
an  advanced  age  with  his  wife,  the  amiable  daughter  of  the  vir- 
tuous Agricola,  whofe  life  he  has  fo  beautifully  written.     By    this 
lady  he  is  fuppoled  to  have  left  children  ;  and  the  emperor  Tacitus 
is  conjedured  to  have  been  a  remote  defcendant  from  the  Hiftorian, 
to  whofe  works  and  memory  he  paid  the  higheft  regard. It  is  re- 
ported  by  Sidonius    Apollinaris,   that  Tacitus   recommended  the 
province  of  writing  Hiftory  to  Pliny  the  Younger,  and  that  he  did 
not  himfelf  engage  in  that  employment,  till  his  friend  had  declined 
it.     This  is  not  mentioned,  indeed,  in  any  of  the  beautiful  letters 
ftill  remaining  from   Pliny  to   Tacitus;  but  it  is  an  inftance  of 
delicacy  not  unparallel'd  among  the  Antients,  as  will  appear  from 
the  following  remark  by  one  of  the  moft  elegant  and  liberal  of  mo- 
dern critics.—"  The  Roman   Poet,  who  was   not  more  eminent 
by  his  genius  than  amiable  in  his  moral  charafler,  affords  perhaps 

O  the 


98  NOTES      TO      THE 

the  moft  remarkable  inftance  that  any  where  occurs,  of  the  con- 
cefTions  which  a  mind  ftrongly  impregnated  with  fentiments  of 
genuine  amity,  is  capable  of  making.  Virgil's  fuperior  talents 
rendered  him  qualified  to  excel  in  all  the  nobler  fpecies  of  poetical 
compofition  :  neverthelefs,  from  the  moft  uncommon  delicacy  of 
friendfhip,  he  facrificed  to  his  intimacy  with  Horace,  the  unrivall'd 
reputation  he  might  have  acquired  by  indulging  his  lyric  vein  ;  as 
from  the  fame  refined  motive  he  forbore  to  exercife  his  dramatic 
powers,  that  he  might  not  obfcure  the  glory  of  his  friend  Va- 
rius. 

Aurum  et  opes  et  rura,  frequens  donabit  amicus  :• 
Qui  velit  inge?jio  cedere,  rarus  crit." 

Mart.  VIII.   18. 
M£lmoth's  Remarks  on  L^lius,  Page  292; 

As  to  Tacitus,  it  is  clear,  I  think,  from  the  Letters  of  Pliny,, 
as  well  as  from  his  own  moft  pleafing  Life  of  Agricola,  that  he  pof- 
fefled  all  the  refined  and  affecflionate  feelings  of  the  heart  in  a  very 
high  degree,  though  the  general  caft  of  his  hiftorical  works  might 
lead  us  to  imagine,  that  aufterity  was  his  chief  charadler.ftic. — It 
would  be  eafy  to  fill  a  volume  in  tranicribing  the  greut  encomiums, 
and  the  violent  cenfures,  which  have  been  lavifhed  by  modern 
writers  of  almoft  every  country  on  this  profound  Hiftorian. — The 
laft  critic  of  eminence,  who  has  written  againft  him,  in  Britain,  is, 
I  believe,  the  learned  Author  of  The  Origin  and  Progrefs  of  Lan- 
guage }  wJio,  in  his  3d  volume  of  that  work,  has  made  many  cu-  - 

rious  remarks  on  the  compofition  of  the  antient  Hiftorians,  and  is  ■ 

particularly  fevere   on  the  didlion  of  Tacitus.     He  rcprefents  him 
as  the  defedive  model,  from  which  modern  writers  have  copied, 

what  he  is  pleafed  to  call,  "  the  fiort   and  priggl/Jj  cut   of  Jlyle  Jo 

much  in  ufe  now," 

NOTE    XX.      Verse  360. 

Thy  Plutarch  Jliines,  by  moral  beauty  known.]    It  is  to  be  wiftied, 

that 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  99 

•t'liat  this  moft:  amiable  Moralill:  and  Biographer  had  added  a  Life  of 
himfelf,  to  thofe  which , he  has  gi.ento  the  world:  as  the  particu- 
lars, which  other  Writers  have  preserved  of  his  perfonal  Hiflory, 
are  very  doubtful  and  imperfe6t  According  to  the  learned  Fabri- 
cius,  he  was  born  under  Claudius,  ijo  yea;:  after  the  Chriftian  zera, 
raifed  to  the  confular  dignity  ..umier  Tr-'dj.aa,  -whofe  preceptor  he 
is  fiid  to  have  been,  and  made. Prx3curator  of  Greece  in  his  old  age 
by  the  Emperor  Adrian — in  the  5th  year  of  whofe  reign  he  is  fup- 
pofed  to  have  died,  at  the  age  of  70.  He  was  married  to  a  mofl; 
amiable  woman  of  his  own  i.ilivq  town  Chreronea,  whofe  name 
was  Timoxena,  and  to  whole  fenfe  pnd  virtue  he  has  borne  the  moll 
affedtionate  teftimony  in  his  m-  '.  s ;  of  which  it  may  be  re- 

gretted that  we  have  no  elegant  trandation       Indeed  even  the  Lives 
of  Plutarch,   the  mofi:  popular  of  all  the  antient  hiflorical  compo-  ' 
fitions,  were  chiefly  known  to  the  Englifli  reader  by  a  motley  and 
miferable  verlion,  till  a  new  one,  executed  with  fidelity  and  fpirit, 
was  prefented  to  the  public  by  the  Langhornes  in  1770. 

NOTE    XXL      Verse  383. 

Mild  MarcelUnus  !  free  from  fertile  awe  /]  Ammianus  Marcellin  us, 
a  Grecian  and  a  Soldier,  as  he  calls  himfelf,  flourifhed  under  Con- 
ftantius  and  the  fucceeding  emperors,  as  late  as  Theodoiius.  He 
ferved  under  Julian  in  the  EaiT:,  and  wrote  a  Hiftory  from  the 
reign  of  Nerva  to  the  death  of  Valens,  in  31  books,  of  which  18 
only  remain. — The  time  and  circumftances  of  his  own  death  are 
unknown. — Bayle  has  an  article  on  Marcellinus,  in  which  he  ob- 
ferves,  that  he  has  introduced  a  moft  bitter  invective  againft  the 
Practitioners  of  Law  into  his  Hiftory. — He  fhould  have  added,  that 
the  Hiftorian  beflows  great  encomiums  on  fome  illuftrious  charac- 
ters of  that  profeffion,  and  even  mentions  the  peculiar  hardlhip  to 
which  Advocates  are  themfelves  expofed. — The  curious  reader  may 
iind  this  paffage.  Lib.  xxx.  £^ap.  4. 

Q  2  NOTE 


loo  NOTES      TO      THE 


NOTE   XXII.      Verse  403. 

And,  ivitb  Comnena's  royal  name  imprejl.']  Anna  Comnena  was  the 
eldeft  daughter  of  the  emperor  Alexius  Comnenus,  and  the  env- 
prefs  Irene,  born  1083. — She  wrote  the  Hiftory  of  her  father,  in 
15  books,  firft  publilhed,  very  imperfedtly,  by  Hsefchelius,  in  i6io, 
andfince  printed  in  the  colleftion  of  the  Byzantine  Hiftorians,  with 
a  diffufe  and  incorredt  Latin  verfion  by  the  Jefuit  Poffinus,  but 
with  excellent  notes  by  the  learned  Du  Frefne. 

Confidering  the  miferies  of  the  time  in  which  flie  lived,  and  the 
merits  of  her  work — which  fome  Critics  have  declared  fuperior  to 
every  other  in  that  voluminous  colledlion — this  Lady  may  be 
juftly  regarded  as  a  fingular  phaenomenon  in  the  literary  world; 
and,  as  this  mention  of  her  maypoflibly  excite  the  curiofity  of  my 
fair  Readers,  I  fliall  clofe  the  Notes  to  this  Epiftle  with  prefenting 
to  them  a  Tranflation  of  the  Preface  to  her  Hiflory,  as  I  believe 
no  part  of  her  Works  have  yet  appeared  in  any  modern  language. 
I  found  that  I  could  not  abridge  it  without  injuring  its  beauty, 
and  though  long,  I  flatter  myfelf  it  will  efcape  the  cenfure  of  being 
tedious,  as  fhe  feelingly  difplays  in  it  the  misfortunes  of  her  life, 
and  the  characfter  of  her  mind. 


THE  PREFACE  OF  THE  PRINCESS  ANNA  COxMNENA, 
FROM     THE     GREEK, 

Prefixed   to  her  Alexiad,   or  Hiflory  of  her  Father, 
the  Emperor  Alexius. 

TIME,  which  flows  irrefiflibly,  ever  encroaching,  and  fl:eah*ng 
fomething  from  human  life,  feems  to  bear  away  all  that  is  mortal 
into  a  gulph  of  darknefs ;  fometimes  deftroying  fuch  things  as 
tleferve  not  utterly  to  be  forgotten,  and  fometimes,  fuch  as  are  molT: 

noble. 


FIRST      EPISTLE. 


lOI 


noble,  and  mofl  worthy  of  remembrance.  Now  (to  ufe  the  words 
of  the  tragic  poet  *) 

Difcovering  things  invifible ;  and  now 
Sweeping  each  prefent  objedl  from  our  fight. 

But  Hiflory  forms  the  ftrongefl  barrier  againft  this  tide  of  Time  : 
it  withftands,  in  fome  meafure,  the  violence  of  the  torrent,  and, 
by  colledling  and  cementing  fuch  things  as  appear  worthy  of  pre- 
fervation,  while  they  are  hurried  along  the  ftream,  it  allows  them 
not  to  fink  iato  the  abyfs  of  oblivion. 

On   this   confideration,    I  Anna,  the  daughter  of  the  emperor 
Alexius,   and  his    confort   Irene,    born  and   educated  in   imperial 
fplendor— not  utterly   void  of  literature,  and  folicitous  to  diflin- 
guifli   myfelf  by  that  Grecian  charadleriftic — as  I  have  already  ap- 
plied   myfcif  to    Rhetoric,    and     having    thoroughly    fludied    the 
Principles  of  Ariftotle  and   the  Dialogues  of  Platoj  have  endea- 
voured to  adorn  my  mind  with  the  f  four  ufual  branches  of  educa- 
tion  (for  I   think  it  incumbent  on  me,  even  at  the  rifque  of  ap- 
pearing vain,  to  declare  what  qualihcations  for  the  prefent  talk  I 
hav-e  received  from  nature,  or  gained  by  application  ;  what  Provi- 
dence has  beftowed  upon  me,  or  time  and  opportunity  fupplied.) 
On  thefe  accounts,  I  am  delirous  of  commemorating,  in  my  pre- 
fent work,  the  anions  of  my  father,  as  they  deferve  not  to  be  buried- 
in  filence,  or  to  be  plunged,  as  it  were,  by  the  tide  of  Time,  into 
the  ocean  of  Oblivion  :   both   thofe   adions  which  he  performed 
after  he  obtained  the  diadem,  and  thofe   before  that  period,   while 
he  was  himfelf  a  fubjeft  of  other  Princes.     I  engage  in  this  nar- 
ration, not  fo   much  to  difplay  any  little  talent  for  compofition, 
as  to  prevent  tranfadions  of  fuch  importance  from  periihing  unre- 
corded :  fince  even  the  brightell  of  human,  atchievements,  if  not 
configned  to  memory  under  the  guard  of  writing,  are  ex.tinguifhed,, 
as  it  were,  by  the  Darknefs  of  Silence. 

*  Sophocles.  t  Aftrology,  Geometry,  Arithmetic,  andMufic 

My 


I02 


NOTES      TO      TFIE 


My  father  was  a  man,  who  knew  both  how  to  govern,  and  to 
pay  to  governors  a  becoming  obedience  :  but  in  chuling  his  a(*l^^'ns 
fof  my  fubjeft,  I  am  apprehenfive,  in  the  very  outfct  of  K^y  work, 
left  I  may  be  cenfured  as  the  Panegyrift  of  my  own  family  for 
writing  of  my  father;  that  if  I  fpeak  of  him  with  admiration,  my 
whole  Hiftory  will  be  confidered  as  a  f^lfe  and  flattering  enoc- 
mium  ;  and  if  any  circumftance,  I  may  have  occafion  to  mentidn, 
leads  me,  as  it  were  by  force,  to  difapprove  fome  part  even  of  his 
conduft,  I  am  apprehenfive,  on  the  other  hand,  not  from  the  cha- 
rafter  of  my  father,  but  from  the  very  nature  of  things,  that  ll-me 
malignant  cenfurers  may  compare  me  to  Cham,  the  fon  of  Noah ; 
fmce  there  are  many,  whom  envy  and  malevolc  icc  will  not  fuffcr 
to  form  a  fair  judgment,  and  who,  to  fpeak.  i!i  the  words  of 
Homer, 

Are  keen  to  cenfure,  where  no  blame  is  due. 

For  whoever  engages  in  the  province  of  Hiftory,  is  bound  to  for- 
get all  fentiments  both  of  favour  and  averfion  ;  and  often  to  adorn 
his  enemies  with  the  higheft  commendations,  when  their  adions 
are  entitled  to  fuch  reward  ;   and  often  to  cenfure  his  moft  intimate 
friends,  when  the  failings   of  their  life  and  manners  require  it. — 
•   Thefe  ar&> duties  equally  incumbent  on  the  Hiftorian,  which   he 
cannot  decline.     As  to  myfelf,  with  regard  to  thofe  who  may  be 
affedled  either  by  my  cenfure  or  my  praife,  I  would  wifh  to  aflure 
them,  that  I  fpeak  both  of  them,   and  their  conduft,  according  to 
the  evidence  of  their  adtions  themfelves,    or  the   report  of  thofe 
who  beheld  them  j  for  either  the  fathers,  or  the  grandfathers,  of 
many  perfons  now  living  were  ocular   witnefTes   of  what  I  iliall 
record.     I  have  been  chiefly  led  to  engage  in  this  Hiftory  of  my 
father  by  the  following  circumftance  : — It  was  my  fortune  to  marry 
Cjefar  Nicephorus,  of  the  Bryennian  family,  a  man  far  fuperior  to 
all  his  cotemporaries,  not  only  in  perfonal  beauty,  but  in  fublimity 
of  underftanding,  and  all   the  charms  of  eloquence !  for  he  was 

equally 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  103 

equally  the  admiration  of  thofe  who  faw,  and  thofe  who  heard 
him.  But  that  my  difcourfe  may  not  wander  from  its  prefent  pur- 
pofe,  let  me  proceed  in  my  narration  ! — He  was  then,  among  all 
men,  the  moft  diftinguifhed  j  and  when  he  marched  with  the 
emperor  John  Comnenus,  my  brother,  on  his  expedition  againft 
Antioch,  and  other  places  in  pofieflion  of  the  Barbarians,  ftill  un- 
able to  abilain  from  literary  purfuits,  even  in  thofe  fcenes  of  labour 
and  fatigue,  he  wrote  various  compolitions  worthy  of  remembrance 
and  of  honour.  But  he  chiefly  applied  himfelf  to  the  writing  an 
account  of  what  related  to  my  father  Alexius,  emperor  of  the 
Romans,  at  the  requeft  of  the  emprefs  ;  reducing  into  proper  form 
the  tranfadions  of  his  reign,  whenever  the  times  would  allow  him 
to  devote  fhort  intervals  of  leifure  from  arms  and  battle  to  works 
of  literature,  and  the  labour  of  compofition.  In  forming  this 
Hirtory,  he  deduced  his  accounts  from  an  early  period,  being  di- 
rected in  this  point  alfo  by  the  inftrudlion  of  our  royal  miftrefs ; 
beginning  from  the  emperor  Diogenes,  and  defcending  to  the  per- 
fon,  whom  he  had  chofcn  for  the  Hero  of  his  Drama— for  this 
feafon  firft  fliewed  my  father  to  be  a  youth  of  expedlation.  Be- 
fore this  period  he  was  a  mere  infant ;  and  of  courfe  performed 
nothing  worthy  of  being  recorded  :  unlefs  even  the  occurrences  of 
his  childhood  fiaould  be  thought  a  fit  fubje£t  for  Hiftory.  Such 
then  was  the  dcCign  and  fcope  of  Caefar's  compofition  :  but  he 
fail'd  in  the  hope  he  had  entertained,  of  bringing  his  Hiftory  to  its 
conclufion  :  for  having  brought  it  to  the  times  of  the  emperor 
Nicephorus  Botoniates,  he  there  broke  off,  having  no  future  op- 
portunity allowed  him  of  continuing  his  narration  :  a  circum- 
ftance,  which  has  proved  a  fevere  lofs  to  Literature,  and  robbed  his 
readers  of  delight! — On  this  account  I  have  undertaken  to  record 
the  ai^ions  of  my  father,  that  fuch  atchievements  may  not  efcape 
pofterity.  What  degree  of  harmony  and  grace  the  writino-s  of 
Gaefar  poflefled,  all  penons  know,  who  have  been  fortunate  enough 
to  fee  his  compofitions.  But  having  executed  his  work  to  the  pe- 
riod I  have  mentioned,  in  the  midft  of  hurry  and  fatigue,  and  bring- 

5  ing 


104 


NOTES      TO      THE 


ing  it   to  us   half  finirtied  from  his  expedition,  he  brought  home, 
alas  !   at  the  fame  time,   a  diforder  that  proved   mortal,  contradted 
perhaps  from   the  hardftiips  of  his  palTage,  or  perhaps    from   that 
harrafling   fcene  of  perpetual  adiion,  and  pollibly  indeed  from  his 
infinite  anxiety  on  my  account ;    for  anxiety  was  natural  to  his  af- 
fe<ftionate  heart,  and  his  labours  were  without  interxniffion.     More- 
over, the  change  and  badnefs  of  climates  might  prepare  for  him  this 
draught  of  death.     For  notwilhflanding  the  dreadful  ftate  of  his 
health,  he  perfevered  in  the  campaign  againft  the  Syrians  and  Cili- 
cians,  till  at  length  he  was  conveyed  out  of  Syria  in  a  mofl;  infirm 
ftate^  and    was  brought    through  Cilicia,   Pamphylia,    Lydia,  and 
Bithynia,   home  to  the  metropolis  of  the  empire,  and  to  his  fa- 
mily.     But  his  vitals  were  now  aiFedted  by   his    infinite  fatigue. — 
Even  in  this  ftate  of  weaknefs  he  was  defirous   of  difplaying  the 
events  of  his  expedition  :   but  this  his  diforder  rendered  him  unable 
to  execute,  and  indeed  we  enjoined  him  not  to  attempt  it,   Icfl:  by 
the  effort  of  fuch    a  narration  he  fliould  burft  open  his  wound. — ■ 
But  dn  the  recollecflion  of  thefe  things,  my  whole  foul  is  darkened, 
and  my  eyes  are  covered  with  a  flood  of  tears. — O  what  a  diredor 
of  the  Roman  counfels  was   then   torn  from  us  !   O  what  an  end 
was  there  to   all  the  treafures  of  clear,  of  various,  and  of  ufeful 
knowledge,  which  he  had  colledted  from   obfervation  and  expe- 
rience,  both  in  regard  to  foreign   affairs,  and  the  internal  bufmefs 
of  the  empire  J — O  what  a  form  was   then  dellroyed  ! — Beauty, 
that  feemed  not  only  entitled  to   dominion,  but  bearing  even  the 
femblance  of  divinity  ! — I  indeed  have  been  converfant  with  every 
calamity ;  and  have  found,  even  from  the   imperial  cradle,  an  un- 
propitious  fortune  :    fome  perhaps  might  efteem  that  fortune  not 
unprppitious,  which  feemed  to  fmile  upon  my  birih,  in  giving  mc 
fovereigns  for  ray  parents,  and  nurfing  me  in  the  imperial  purple  : 
but  for  the  other  circumftances  of  my  life,  alas,  what  tcmpefts  ! 
alas,   what  perturbations  !    The  melody  of  Orpheus  afiedlcd  even 
inanimate  nature  i  and  Timotheus,  in  playing  the  Orthic  ibng  to 
Alexanderj  made  tlie  Macedon  ftart  to  arms. 

The 


FIRST      EPISTLE.  ro^ 

The  relation  of  my  mlferies  would  not,  indeed,  produce  fuch 
effedls  ;  but  it  would  move  every  auditor  to  tears  ;  it  would  force 
not  only  beings  endued  with  fenfibility,  but  even  inanimate  nature 
to  fympathize  in  my  forrow. — This  remembrance  of  Ca?fnr,  and 
his  unexpedled  death,  tears  open  the  deepefl  wound  of  my  foiil ; 
Indeed,  I  confider  all  my  former  misfortunes,  if  compared  to  this 
immeafureable  calamity,  but  as  a  drop  of  v/ater  to  the  Atlantic  fea: 
or  rather,  my  earlier  affliftions  were  a  kind  of  prelude  to  this  : 
they  firft  involved  me,  as  it  were,  like  a  fmoke  preceding  this 
raging  fire  :  they  were  a  kind  of  heat,  that  portended  a  conflagra- 
tion, which  no  words  can  defcribe.  O  thou  fire,  that  blazefl- 
without  fuel,  preying  on  my  heart  without  defliroying  its  exiftence  j 
piercing  through  my  very  bones,  and  flirinking  up  my  foul ! — 
But  I  perceive  myfelf  hurried  away  from  my  fubjedt :  this  mention 
of  Cajfar,  and  what  I  fuffer  in  his  lofs,  has  led  me  into  the  pro- 
lixity of  grief:  wiping  therefore  the  tear  from  my  eyes,  and  re- 
draining  myfelf  from  this  indulgence  of  forrow,  I  will  proceed 
in  order  j  yet,  as  the  *  tragic  Poet  fays. 

Still  adding  tear  to  tear, 

as  recolledling  misfortune  after  misfortune  :  for  the  entering  on 
the  Hiftory  of  fuch  a  king,  fo  eminent  for  his  virtues,  revives 
in  my  mind  all  the  wonders  he  performed,  which  move  me  to 
frefh  tears :  and  thefe  I  fhare  in  common  with  all  the  world  ;  for 
the  remem.brance  of  him,  and  the  recital  of  his  reign,  f.ipplies  to 
me  a  new  fubieO:  of  lamentation,  nnd  muft  remind  others  of  the 
lofs  they  have  fuflained. 

But  let  me  at  length  begin  the  Hiftory  of  my  father,  from  th«j 
period  moft  proper : — now  the  mod  proper  period  is  that,  which 
will  give  to  my  narration  the  clearefl,  and  mofl  hiftorical  ap- 
pearance.— — 

*  Euripides. 
END    OF    THE    NOTES    TO    THE    FIRST    EPISTLE. 

P  NOTES 


io6  NOTES      TO      THE 


NOTE 


TO     THE 


SECOND       EPISTLE. 


NOTE  I.     Verse  17. 


TTO IV fainted  Kings  renounce,  with  holy  dread, 
■*       The  chajie  endearments  of  their  7narriage-bed.^  It  is  well  known 
how  Edward  the  Confeflbr  is  celebrated  for  his  inviolable  chas- 
tity by  the  Monkifli  Hiftorians — one  of  them,  in  particular,  is  fo 
folicitous  to  vindicate  the  piety  of  Edward  in  this  article,  that  he 
pafles  a  fevere  cenfure  on  thofe,  who  had  imputed  his  fingular  con- 
tinence to  a  principle  of  refentment  againft  the  f\ither  of  his  queeix 
— Hanc   quoque    Rex  ut  conjugem  tali  arte  traftavit;  quod  nee 
thoro    removit ;     nee   earn    virili  more    carnaliter  cognovit :   quod 
utvum  patris   illius,  qui  proditor  convidus  erat,  et  farailice  ejus 
odio  quod  prudentcr  pro  tempore  diiTimulabat;  an  amore  caiUtatis 
id  fccerit,  iiicertum  eft  aliquibus,  qui  ia  dubiis  finiftra  interpre- 
tantur.     Veruntamen  non  benevoli,  et  veritati,  ut  videtur,  diffoni 
dicere  pmsfumunt.     Qiiod  Rex  charitatis  et  pacis  munere  ditatus, 
de  generc  prodltoris  h-.rredes,  qui  fibi  fuccedercnt,  corrupto  fcmine 
noluerit    procreare.     Sciebat   enini   rex  pacificus   quod  iilia  nihil 

criuiiuis 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  107 

criminis  commifit  cum  patre  prodltore,  6c  ideo  non  refpult  thorum 
virginis ;  fed  ambo  unanimi  affenfu  caftitatem  voverunt,  parilique 
voluntate,  Thom^  Rudborne,  Hift.  major,  in  Anglia  Sacra. 

Tom.  I.  p.  241. 
The  very  high  degree  of  merit,  which  the  writers  of  the  dark 
ages  attributed  to  this  matrimonial  mortification,  is  ftill  more  for- 
cibly difplayed  in  a  miraculous  ftory  related  by  Gregory  of  Tours, 
which  the  curious  reader  may  find  in  the  Firft  Book  and  42d 
chapter  of  that  celebrated  Hiftorian. 

NOTE    II.     Verse   19. 

How  Nuns,  entrancd,  to  joys  cekftial  tnouttf. 

Frantic  with  rapture  from  a  facred fount .]  The  Monklrti  Hif- 
torlans  feem  to  have  confidered  a  vifion  as  the  moft  engaging  em- 
bellifhment  that  Hiftory  could  receive— Even  the  fage  Matthew- 
Paris  delights  in  thefe  heavenly  digreffions.  But  the  vifions,  to 
which  the  preceding  verfes  particularly  allude,  are  thofe  of  the 
Virgin  Flotilda,  printed  in  the  2d  volume  of  the  Hiftoriae  Franco- 
rum  Scriptores,  by  the  learned  Du  Chefne  :  A  very  fliort  fpecimen 
may  fatisfy  the  curiofity  of  the  Reader — Videbatur  Canis  candidus 
eidem  adgaudere,  quern  tamen  ilia  timens  pertranfiit,  6c  ad  quen- 
dam  locum  in  medium  decentium  clericorum  pervenit,  qui  earn 
gratanter  excipiebant,  et  potum  ei  in  vafe  pulcherrimo  quafi  aquam 
clariffimam  offerebant. -P.  624. 

NOTE    III.      Verse  24. 

With  thofe  choice  gifts,   the  Meadoiv,  and  the  Mill.]   The  ufual 
legacy  of  the  old  Barons  to  their  monaftic  dependants. 

NOTE    IV.      Verse  59. 

If  mitred  Turpin  told,  in  nvildejl  Jlrain.]     It  Is  now  generally 

P  2  agreed. 


io8  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 

agreed,  that  the  Hiflory  which  bears  the  name  of  Turpin,  Arcti- 
bifhop  of  Rhc'ims,  was  the  forgery  of  a  Monk,  at  the  time  of  the 
Crufades,  though  Pope  CaUxtus  the  Second  declared  it  to  be  au- 
tlientic. — But,  as  it  was  certainly  intended  to  pafs  as  genuine  Hif- 
tory,  whenever  it  was  compofed,  and  adually  did  fo  for  fome 
ages,  this  poetical  mention  of  it  appeared  not  improper.  For  the 
entertainment  of  the  curious  reader,  I  (Tiall  tranfcribe  the  two  mi- 
raculous paffi'.ges  alluded  to  in  the  poem  : — Ante  diem  belli,  caflris 
et  arietibus  Be  turmis  pra^paratis  in  pratis,  fcilicet  quae  funt  inter 
caftrum,  quod  dicitur  Talaburgum,  &  urbem,  juxta  fluvium 
Caranta,  infixerunt  Chriftiani  quidam  haftas  fuas  eredlas  in  terra 
ante  caftra,  craftina  vero  die  haftas  fuas  corticibus  &  frondibus  de- 
coratas  invenerunt  j  hi  fcilicet  qui  in  bello  pra^fenti  accepturi  erant 
martyrii  palmam  pro  Chrifti  fide. — Qui  etiam  tanto  miraculo  Dei 
gavifi,  abfcilTis  haftis  fuis  de  terra,  fimul  coaduniti  primitus  in 
bello  perierunt,  &  multos  Saracenos  occiderunt,  fed  tandem 
Martyrio  coronantur.     Cap.  X. 

After  the  foliloquy  of  Roland,  addreffed  to  his  fword,  which 
tnoft  readers  have  fecn  quoted  in  Mr.  Warton's  excellent  Obfer- 
vations  on  Spenfcr,  the  Hiftorian  proceeds  thus  : — Timens  ne  in 
manus  Saracenorum  deveniret,  percuffit  fpata  lapidem  marmoreum 
trino  idtu ;  a  fummo  ufque  deorfum  lapis  dividitur,  &  gladius  bi- 
ceps illxfus  educitur. Deinde  tubafua  coepit  altifona  tonitruare, 

ii  forte  aliqui  ex  Chriftianis,  qui   per  nemora  Saracenorum  timore 
latitabant,   ad   fe  venirent.     Vel  li  illi,  qui  portus  jam  tranfierant, 
forte  ad  fe   redirent,   fuoque   funeri  adeflent,    fpatamque   fuam  & 
equum  acciperent,  et  Saracenos  perfequerentur.     Tunc   tanta  vir- 
tute  tuba   fua  eburnea  infonuit,   quod  flatu  omnia  ejus   tuba  per 
medium  fcilfa,  &  venae  colli  ejus  &   nervi  rupti  fuilTe  feruntur, , 
cujus  vox  ad  aures  Caroli,   qui  in  valle  qua:  Caroli  dicitur,  cum- 
exercitu   fuo   tentoria   fixcrat,  loco  fcilicet,   qui  diftabat  a  Carolo  • 
O'flo  milliaribus  verfus  Gafconiam^  Augclico  du(5lu  pervenit. 

Cap.  xxil,  &  xxiii. 

NOTE 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  109 


NOTE    V.      Verse  65. 

Tet  modeji  JEgmhard,  with  grateful  care. "]  The  celebrated  Secre- 
tary and  fuppofed  Son-in-k'v  of  Charlemain  ;  who  is  faid  to  have 
been  carried  through  the  fnow  on  the  flioulders  of  the  affedlionate 
and  ingenious  Imma,  to  prevent  his  being  tracked  from  her  apart- 
ment by  the  Emperor  her  father :  a  ftory  which  the  elegant  pen  of 
Addifon  has  copied  and  embelliflied  from  an  old  German  Chro- 
nicle, and  inferted  in  the  3d  volume  of  the  Speftator. — This  happy 
lover  (fuppoiing  the  ftory  to  be  true)  feems  to  have  poirefTed  a 
heart  not  unworthy  of  fo  enchanting  a  miftrefs,  and  to  have  re- 
turned her  afFedlion  with  the  moft  faithful  attachment ;  for  there 
is  a  letter  of  iEginhard's  ftill  extant,  lafnenting  the  death  of  his 
wife,  which  is  written  in  the  tendereft  ftrain  of  connubial  afflic-- 
tion — it  does  not  however  exprefs  that  this  lady  was  the  affec- 
tionate  Princefs,  and   indeed  fome   late   critics   have  proved,   that 

Imma  was  not  the  daughter  of  Charlemain. But  to  return  to  our 

Hiftorian. — He  was  a  native  of  Germany,  and  educated  by  the  mu- 
nificence of  his  imperial  mailer,  of  which  he  has  left  the  rfioft 
grateful  teftimony  in  his  Preface  to  the  Life  of  that  Monarch — 
the  pafTage  may  ferve  to  fliew  both  the  amiable  mind  of  the 
Hiftorian,  and  the  elegance  of  his  ftyle,  confidering  the  age  in 
which  he  wrote  : — Suberat  &  alia  non  irrationabilis,  ut  opinor 
caufa,  qus  vel  fola  fufficere  poflet,  ut  me  ad  hfec  fcribenda  com- 
pelleretj  nutrimentum  videlicet  in  me  impenfum,  6c  perpetua, . 
poftquam  in  aula  ejus  converfari  ccepi,  cum  ipfo  ac  liberis  ejus 
amicitia,  qua  me  ita  fibi  devinxit,  debitoremque  tam  vivo  quam 
mortuo  conftituit  J  ut  merito  ingratus  videri  &  judicari  polTem,  fi 
tot  beneficiorum  in  me  collatorum  immemor  clariffima  &  illuftrif- 
lima  hominis  optime  de  me  meritt  gefta  iilentiopriEterirem  :  pate- 
rerque  vitam  ejus  quafi  qui  nunquam  vixerit  fme  literis  ac  debita- 
laude  manere  ;  cui  fcribcnds  atque  explicandse  non  meum  ingenio-- 
lum,  quod  exile  &.  parvum  imo  nullum  pene  eJi,  .fed  Tullianam^ 

ppr 


no  NOTES      TO      THE 

par  erat  defudare  facundiam. — The  terms  in  which  he  fpeaks  of 
Charlemain's  being  unable  to  write  are  as  follow : — Tentabat  & 
fcribere  fabulafque  &  codicellos  ad  hoc  in  ledtulo  fub  cervicalibus 
circumferre  folebat,  ut  cum  vacuum  tempus  eflet,  manum  effigiun- 
dis  Uteris  afTuefaceret.  Sed  parum  profpere  fucceffit  labor  pras- 
pofterus,  ac  fero  inchoatus. — ^ginhard,  after  the  lofs  of  his  la- 
mented wife,  is  fuppofed  to  have  pafTed  the  remainder  of  his  days 
in  religious  retirement,  and  to  have  died  foon  after  the  year  840. — 
His  Life  of  Charlemain,  his  Annals  from  741  to  829,  and  his  Let- 
ters, are  all  inferted  in  the  2d  volume  of  Duchefne's  Scriptores  Fran- 
corum.  But  there  is  an  improved  edition  of  this  valuable  Hifto- 
rian,  with  the  Annotations  of  Hermann  Schmincke,  ia  Quarto 
1711. 

NOTE    VI.      Verse  79. 

If  BrifiJJj  Geoffrey  fill  d  his  motley  page 

With  Merlin  s  fpells  and  Uther's  amorous  rage.'\  The  firft  of  the 
two  excellent  diflertations  prefixed  to  Mr.  Warton's  Hiftory  of 
Englilh  Poetry,  gives  the  moft  perfect  account  of  this  famous  old 
Chronicler  and  his  whimfical  performance. — *'  About  the  year 
1 100,  Gualter,  Archdeacon  of  Oxford,  a  learned  man,  and  a  dili- 
gent collecflor  of  Hiflories,  travelling  through  France,  procured 
in  Armorica  an  antient  Chronicle,  written  in  the  Britifh  or  Armo- 
rican  language,  entitled,  Brut-y-Brenhined,  or  the  Hiftory  of  the 
Kings  of  Britain.  This  book  he  brought  into  England,  and  com- 
municated it  to  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  a  Welfh  Benedidline 
Monk,  an  elegant  writer  of  Latin,  and  admirably  (killed  in  the 
Britifh  tongue.  Geoffrey,  at  the  requefl:  and  recommendation  of 
Gualter  the  Archdeacon,  tranflated  this  Britifli  Chronicle  into 
Latin,  executing  the  Tranflation  with  a  tolerable  degree  of  purity, 
and  great  fidelity,  yet  not  without  fome  interpolations. — It  was 
probably  finifhed  after  the  year  1 138." — "  The  fimple  fubjedl  of  this 
Chronicle,  diverted  of  its  romantic  embellifliments,  is  a  deduftion 

of 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  m 

ofthe  Welfli  Princes  from  the  Trojan  Brutus  to  Cadwallader,  who 
reigned  in  the  feventh  century."  To  this  extradt  from  Mr.  War- 
ton,  it  may  be  proper  to  add  a  concife  account  of  that  romantic 
embeniflim°nt,  to  which  I  have  particularly  alluded ; — Uther  Pen- 
dragon,  at  the  feftival  of  his  coronation,  falls  in  love  with  Igerna, 
the  wife  of  Gorlois,  Duke  of  Cornwall  j  and  being  prevented  from 
purfuing  his-  addreffes  by  the  vigilance  of  the  huftand,  he  applies 
to  the  magical  power  of  Merlin  for  the  completion  of  his  defire. — 
This  he  obtains  by  being  transformed  into  the  perfon  of  Gorlois, 
and  thus  introducing  himfelf  to  the  deluded  Igerna,  as  Jupiter  vi- 
fited  Alcmena,  he  gives  birth  to  the  celebrated  Arthur. — Manfit 
itaque  rex  ea  nofte  cum  Igerna  &  fcCe  defiderata  venere  refecit.  De- 
ceperat  namque  illam  falfa  fpecies  quam  affumpferat :  deceperat 
etiam  fidlitiis  fermonibus,  quos  ornate  componebat  .  .  .  unde  ipfa 
credula  nihil  quod  pofcebatur  abnegavit.  Concepit  itaque  eadem 
node  celeberrimum  ilium  Arthurum,  qui  poftmodum  ut  Celebris 
eflet,  mira  probitate  promeruit. 

Galfridus  Moji.  Lib.  vi.  cap.  2.. 


NOTE   VII.      Verse  83. 

Tet  Life's  greaf  drama,  and  the  Deeds  of  men. 

Sage  Monk  of  Malm'Jbiiry!  engagd  thy  pen.]  William,  furnamed 
of  Malmefbury  from  being  a  member  of  that  church,  was  a  native 
of  Somerfetfliire,  and  is  fuppofed  to  have  received  his  education  at 
Oxford:  He  is  juftly  called,  by  almoft  every  writer  on  Englifh, 
Hiftory,.the  moft  liberal  and  judicious  of  all  our  monaftic  Hillo- 
rians.  His  principal  work  is  a  Hiftory  of  our  Kings,  from  the 
arrival  of  the  Saxons  to  the  20th  year  of  Henry  the  Firft.  This 
was  followed  by  two  books  of  later  Hiitory,  which  clofe  with  the 
celebrated  efcape  of  the  Emprefs  Matilda  from  the  Caftle  of  Ox- 
ford, 1142..  Thefe  works  are  both  addreffed  to  that  munificent 
patron  of  merit,  Robert  Earl  of  Gloucefter,  natural  fon  of  Henry 
the  Firft,  who  was  perhaps  the  mofl  exalted  and  accomplifhed  cha- 

^  rader. 


112  NOTES      TO      THE 

rafter,  that  ever  flonrifhcd  in  fo  barbarous  an  age.  The  Hiflorlan 
ipcaks  of  his  noble  friend  with  all  the  limplicity  of  truth,  and  all 
the  warmth  of  virtuous  admiration.  He  died,  according  to  Pitts, 
in  1 143,  three  years  before  his  generous  patron;  and  this  is  pro- 
bable, from  his  not  purfuing  his  Iliftory,  which  he  intimates  a  de- 
fign  of  refuming. — Yet  there  is  a  paffage  preferved  in  Tanner,  from 
the  Preface  to  his  Comments  on  Jeremiah,  which  fcems  to  prove, 
that  he  lived  to  a  later  period,  fmce  he  mentions  his  hirtorical 
works  as  the  produiflion  of  his  younger  days,  and  fpeaks  of  his  age 
as  devoted  to  religious  compofition.  Eefides  his  four  books  de  gefbis 
Pontilicum  Anglorum,  he  wrote  many  works  of  the  fime  pious 
■turn,  which  the  curious  reader  may  fee  enumerated  in  Tanner's 
JSibliotheca. 


NOTE    VIII.      Verse   117. 

Mild  Abulfeda  !    ivhofe  rich  merits  claim 

No  Jingle  ivreath  of  literary  Jame.'j  Ifmael  Abulfeda,  defcended 
from  a  brother  of  the  great  Saladin,  and  Prince  of  Hamah,  a  city  of 
Syria,  was  born  at  Damafcus,  in  the  year  of  the  Hegira  672,  or  ac- 
cording to  the  Chriftian  a;ra  1273.  His  youth  was  devoted  to  the 
toils  of  martial  life,  and  he  feems  to  have  been  a  brave  and  accom- 
pliflied  foldier,  though  his  literary  fame  has  eclipfed  his  military 
reputation. — The  turbulent  ftate  of  his  country  prevented  his  efta- 
blifliment  in  his  hereditary  dominion  till  the  year  710,  when  the 
poflcfiion  of  it  was  fccured  to  him  by  the  afTiftance  of  Al  Malec  Al 
Nafer,  fultan  of  ^Egypt,  from  whom  he  afterwards  recoivcd  the 
higheft  honours  ;  of  which  his  gratitude  has  left  the  following  par- 
ticular defcription,  inferted  by  the  learned  Schultens,  in  his  Preface 
to  the  Life  of  Saladin,  as  it  gives  great  luftre  to  the  character  of  our 
royal  Hiftorian. 

"  Hamata  degreffum  equis  veredariis  fine  ullo  jumento,  inftru- 

mentove  itineris  prolixiflima  gratia  cumulavit  Sultanus,  atquemuni- 

ficentiam  fuam  fummo  gradu  erga  me  explicuit,  mittendis  variis 

7  veftibus 


S  2^  C  O  N  D      EPISTLE.  /j-f^ 

veftibitP,  eqtiis,  veaabulis,  edulii?,  mihique  peculiare  taberna- 
culuni  ftatuendo,  quod  copiofe  adornatum  erat  veflc  ftragula, 
tapetibufquead  Ibmniim,  ad  cibum  capiendum,  fci-vorumque  pe- 
culiari  t-iirba  mihi  affignata.  Cum  hilte  omnibus  baud  ceflabant 
mag'nifiGa  'V^eftimenta,  diverfifilmi  generis,  ad  me  mrfTitata,  ut  iis 
publice  condecorarem  quos  collibuilfet.  Sultanus  interea  lono-um 
in  redeundo  domum  itei-  fallebat  venatione  dorcadum  per  accipitres, 
me  quoque  fuaViter  animum  obleiflante  inter  effulas  ejus  in  mc 
gratias  ;  dum  ad  me  idciitidem  de  captura  fua  caprcolos  fubmittebat, 
Diredum  quoque  ad  me,  dum  iter  faceremus,  diploma  ejus,  quo  fig- 
nificabat,  te  ego  fultanum  conftituam,  flatim  ac  in  /Egyptum  per- 
venero  :  atque  ad  regionem  tuam  remeabis  hoc  titulo  prsefulgens. 
'Egb  vero  excufationem  ipetere  tanti  honoris,  eumque  deprecari, 
qu'in  et  dolorem  inde  percipere,  memet  ipfum  abjiciendo,  fplen- 
didiulque  pra^dicando  nomen  ejus  celfum,  quam  ut  illius  quifquana 
confors  ac  particeps  redderetur.      Pro  incerto  itaque  relidlum  illud 

negotlum,  donee  iedem  regni  fui  attigilTct Ibi  dum 

commoror,  fultani  mandate  ad  me  perveriiiint  inlignia  fultanatus, 
principefque  miniftrorum  viginti  circiter  •  ^'apportantes  reaalem 
veftem  ferieam  confummatiflimam,  auro  intertextam,  et  acinacem 
fultanicum,  et  imperiale  ephippium  auro  illufum  ^Egyptio,  diplo- 
ma item,  fultanatus  dignitatem  mihi  deferens,  una  cum  Ilipatoribus 
fultanicis  ad  frsnum  tenendum,  felicbdarioque  farmiQ:^ero)  cujus  ex 
humeris  duo  gladii  dependebant,  apparitoribufque  iultanicis,  qui 
equum  generofum  adducebant  apparatilhme  ornatum-eum  eo-o  con- 
icendi  mane  diei  Jovis,  declmo  et  feptimo  Muharremi,  pra;ceden- 
tibus  ad  dimidium  vias  principibus ;  vedli  dein,  omnes  iterum  ad 
pedes  defcenderunt  quum  propinquaffem  arci  montis  (paJatlo  rcris 
JEgypti)  ego  vero'  in  equo  perrexi,  donee  perveherer  prope  portam 
arcis,  ubi  ad  pedes  degreffus,  terram  in  honorem  fultani  deofculatus 
fum,  arcem  verfus,  atque  diplomati  quoque  celfiffimo  ofculum  fixi : 
terram  deinde  iterum  iterumque  deofculatus  efcendi  in  arcem,  atque 
^raefentem  me  ftiti  fultano,  illuftri  jam  ac  proveiflo  die  :  ubi  denuo 
terram  cfculatus  fum  :  at  ille  me  ea  cumulavit  gratia,   quam  ne 

Q^  pater 


11^  NOTES      TO      THE 

pater  quidem  filio  fuo  exhibet;  mihique  inter  hsec  Hamatam  remeare 
niandavit,  Heus  tu,  inquiens,  longum  jam  abfens  revertere  ad  re- 
gionem  tuam."  Thus  inverted  with  the  title  of  Sultan,  Abulfeda 
returned,  in  all  his  fplendor,  to  his  paternal  dominion,  where  he 
clofed  an  honourable  life  at  the  age  of  fixty,  in  733,  thirteen  years 
after  this  magnificent  ceremony. — He  is  faid  to  have  been  highly 
ikilled  in  medicine,  philofophy,  and  poetry;  but  his  fame  as  an 
author,  is  chiefly  founded  on  his  hiftorical  and  geographical  pro- 
du(5lions;  and  thcfe,  notwithdanding  their  acknowledged  merit, 
have  appeared  only  in  feledled  fragments — fo  pitiful  and  precarious 
has  been  the  encouragement,  which  the  moft:  liberal  nations  of 
Europe  have  beftowed  on  oriental  literature,  that  defigns  of  pub- 
lishing a  complete  edition  of  Abulfeda's  geography  have  been  fuf>- 
fered  to  fail  both  in  France  and  England — the  honour  of  doing 
juflice  to  this  illuftrious  author  feems  to  be  referved  for  Germany, 
where  the  learned  Michaelis  has  lately  publiflied  his  defcription  of 
Egypt,  and  intimates  an  intention  of  printing  the  other  parts  of  this 
author— of  his  general  Hiftory,  which  he  brought  down  to,  the 
latter  years  of  his  own  life,  different  portions  have  been  given  to  the 
public  by  different  editors — his  account  of  Mahomet,  by  Gagnier, 
printed  at  Oxford  in  folio,  1723;  his  Hiftory  of  the  Arabian  Ca- 
liphs, to  the  year  of  the  Hegira  406,  by  Reiike,  printed  at  Leipfic 
1754;  and  his  narrative  of  all  the  circumftances  relating  to  the 
great  Saladin  has  been  very  properly  annexed  by  Schultens  to  Bohad- 
din's  Life  of  that  monarch.  Abulfeda,  in  this  portion  of  his  Hiftory, 
feems  to  dwell  on  the  great  charader  of  Saladin  with  that  ingenuous 
pride,  which  a  generous  mind  muft  naturally  feel  in  fpeaking  of  fo 
noble  an  anceftor — he  relates  fome  anecdotes  of  that  prince,  not 
mentioned  by  his  Biographer,  highly  exprelTive  of  his  animated  and 
affedlionate  fpirit  j  particularly  a  letter  written  immediately  after 
the  fevere  defeat,  which  obliged  him  to  fly  from  Afcalon  into  the 
deferts  of  Egypt  -,  it  was  addrefled  to  his  brother,  who  commanded 
at  Damafcus,  and  opened  with  a  quotation  from  an  Arabian  poet 
to  this  effeil ; 

^ry 


SECOND      EPISTLE*  115 

My  foul  remembers  thee  with  fond  delight, 
Amidft  the  horrors  of  the  adverfe  fight. 
When  hoftile  Larces  drink  the  gory  flood. 
And  fatiate  in  our  veins  their  thirft  of  blood. 

In  his  account  of  the  gentle  difpofition  and  refined  manners  of 
Saladin,  he  perfeftly  agrees  with  the  Biographer  of  that  monarch — 
The  generous  Abulfeda,  fo  liberal  in  commemorating  the  merit  of 
others,  has  not  himfelf  wanted  an  encomiaft ;  for,  according  to 
Herbelot,  his  eulogy  is  contained  in  the  works  of  an  oriental  Poet, 
whofe  name  is  Nobatah,  and  whofe  compofitions  may  be  found  in 
the  king  of  France's  library. 


NOTE    IX.      Verse  123. 

j^nd  with  that  vi£lims  blood  his  fahre  fiairiy 

Who  dard  to  'write  the  annals  of  his  reign  /]  I  am  unable  to 
difcover  the  name  of  this  inhuman  Prince,  or  that  of  his  un- 
fortunate Hiftorian;  but  the  fadl  is  related  on  the  authority 
of  an  Arabic  writer,  named  Nouari,  by  M.  Cardonne,  in  the 
Preface  to  his  Hifloire  de  I'Afrique  et  de  I'Efpagne  fous  la  Domi- 
nation des  Arabes.  His  words  are  "  Nouari  rapporte,  que  les  Sul- 
"  tans  de  la  dynaftie  des  Almohades  defendirent,  fous  peine  de  la 
"  vie,  d'ecrire  les  Annales  de  leur  regne,  et  qu'un  Prince  de  cette 
"  maifon  fit  perir  un  Auteur,  pour  avoir  enfraint  cette  loi."  As 
the  Princes  of  this  dynafty  exerted  their  power  both  in  Africa  and 
Spain,  this  fingular  execution  might  happen  in  either  country — I 
have  ventured  to  fuppofe  it  in  Spain,  for  poetical  reafons,  which 
will  occur  to  the  Reader. 


CL2  NOTE 


nd  .NOTES      TO      THE 


NOTE    X.      Verse   127. 

''There  Corduba,  in  hours  of  happier  fate. 

Sublimely  rofe  in  academic  Jiate."]  The  Univerfity  of  Corduba 
was  founded  by  Al  Hakeni  the  Second,  who  died  in  the  336th 
year  of  the  Hegira,  after  a  reign  of  fifteen  years  and  five 
months.  He  was  the  fon  and  fuccelTor  of  the  magnificent 
Abdelrahman  the  Third,  who  in  a  long  and  profperous  life 
had  given  lability  and  fplendor  to  the  Moorilh  empire  in 
Spain.  It  is  remarkable,  that  many  of  thefe  Arab  Princes  were 
jiot  only  protedlors  of  literature,  but  often  diftinguiflied  themfelves 
by  poetical  compofition.  Nor  were  the  Moorifli  Ladies  left  eager 
to  cultivate  the  moft  elegant  of  mental  accomplifliments  :  Valada, 
or  Valada ta,  the  daughter  of  the  Prince  who  founded  the  Univer- 
fity, was  no  lefs  celebrated  for  her  poetical  talents,  than  for  her 
fingular  beauty  and  exalted  birth.  She  beftowed  her  protei!tion  on 
that  feat  of  learning,  which  owed  its  rife  to  the  liberality  of  her 
father;  and  the  principal  poets  of  the  time  are  faid  to  have  formed 
her  favourite  fociety. 

The  Bibliotheca  Arabico-Hifpana  of  Cafiri,  from  whence  I  have 
drawn  thefe  particulars,  contains  alfo  a  lift  of  many  female  poets, 
who  reflecfted  honour  an  their  native  city  of  Corduba.  One  of  the 
mo-ft  eminent  among  thefe,  was  a  Lady  diftinguifhed  by  the  name 
of  Aifcha  Bent,  whofe  compofitions,  both  in  profe  and  verfe,  were 
publicly  recited  in  the  Academy  with  univerfal  apphufe ;  and  Avho 
clofed  (fays  my  Author)  a  fingle  and  chafte  life,  in  the  year  of  the* 
Hegira  400,  leaving  many  monuments  of  her  own  genius,  as  well 
as  a  rich  and  well-chofen  library. 

NOTE    XL      Verse   147. 

Thy  warm  Bohaddin,  with  that  generous  zeal. 
Which  no  baj'e  Jons  of  Adulation  feel. ^  Bohaddin,  or  Bohadin  (for 

liis 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  n 


/ 


his  name  is  varioufly  written)    is   conjedlured  by  Schultens,   his 
learned  Tranflator,  to  have  been  an  Affyrian  by  birth,  and  a   native 
of  Molula,  the  metropolis  of  Mefopotamia  ;  from  whence,  before 
he  entered  into  the  fervice  of  Saladin,  he  was  fent  embalfador,  as 
he  himfelf  relates,  to  the  Caliph  of  Bagdad. — He  feems   to  have 
been  principally  indebted  to   his   talents  as  an  Hiftorian,  for  the 
protedlion  and  favour  of  that  engaging  hero,  whofe  confidence  he 
afterwards  obtained,  and  whafe  fplendid  chara6ler  he  has  fo  warmly 
celebrated:  For  as  he  was  returning  from  Mecca  to  Mofula,  he 
embraced  an  opportunity  of  prefenting   to  Saladin   an  account   of 
the  holy  war,  as  he  terms  it,  which  he  had  drawn  up,  as  he  ftopt 
at  Damafcus  in  the  courfe  of  his  pilgrimage,  and  in  which  he  had 
defcribed  the  adminiftration  and  difcipline  of  that  monarch.     He 
affirms^  that  the  Sultan  perufed  his  work  with  infinite  fatisfadion, 
and  expreffed  the  moft  eager  defire  to  engage  him  in  his  fervice. — 
The  grateful  Hiftorian  was  no  lefs  inclined  to  devote  himfelf  to  his 
generous  and  enthufiaftic  patron  : — From  this  period  he  feems  to 
have  been  a  favourite  companion  of  his  warlike  mafter  j  to  have 
fhared  many  of  his  dangers,  as  well  as  his  moft  fecret  counfels  ;  and 
to  have  ferved   him  with   a  moft  zealous  and  aftedionate  attach- 
ment, to   the  hour  of  his  death — an  event,  of  which    he   fpeaks 
with   the   aft'edting   fimplicity   of  real  forrow.     In  mentioning  the 
oriental  cuftom  of  waihing  the  body  of  the   deceafed,    he   records 
the  name  of  the  minifter  who  performed  the  ceremony  ;  and  adds, 
that  he  had  himfelf  engaged  in  this  mournful  office,  but  was  obliged 

to  retire,  on  feeling  himfelf  unequal  to  fo  painful  a  fcene.' The 

work  of  this  interefting  Biographer  is  divided  into  two  parts;  the 
firft  exhibits  a  general  character  of  the  hero,  with  particular  ex- 
amples of  his  various  virtues  and  endowments  j  the  fecond  gives  a 
chronological  account  of  his  adventures,  from  his  firft  expedition 
into  Egypt  to  the  clofe  of  his  life  ;  but  pafting  lightly  over  his 
other  exploits,  dwells  chiefly  on  the  tranfaclions  of  the  holy  war; 
and  difcovers  fuch  marks  of  religious  zeal,  that  Schultens  very 
ihrewdly  fuppofes  the  a\ithor  to  have  been  a  prieft,  from  the  manner 

m 


II! 


NOTES      TO      THE 


in  wliich  he  lavtfhes  his  maledidions :  it  is  juft-,  however,  to  ob" 
Icrvc,  that  he  fpeiiks  very  liberally  on  the  martial  merit  of  his 
Chrillian  enemies ;  and  there  is  one  pafTugc  in  his  hiilory,  in  which 
he  pays  a  very  plcafmg  and  pathetic  compliment  to  the  univerfal 
philanthropy  of  the  Sultan  ;  it  is  in  relating  an  anecdote,  which 
affords  fo  interefling  a  pidlure,  that  I  cannot  help  prefenting  it  to 
my  reader : 

In  the  army  of  Saladin  there  were  fome  dexterous  robbers,  who 

uled  to  penetrate  by  night  into  the   camp  of  the  Cbriftians,  and 

prefent  to  the  Sultan  on  their  return  fuch  booty  as  they  had  been 

able  to  bring  off,  which  he  beflowed  upon  them,  as  a  reward  of  their 

valour.     In  one  of  their  nightly  excurfions  they  happened  to  feize 

an  infant  of  three  months ;   the  mother,  robbed  of  her  little  one, 

fpent  the  night  in   the  moft  bitter  lamentations,  and  related  her 

misfortune  to  the  Chriflian  leaders  : — They  anfwered  ;  The  Sultan 

is  compaffionate,   and   we  therefore  give  you  permiflion  to  depart, 

and  petition  him  for  your  child,  which  he  will  certainly  reflore.— 

Approaching  our  guard,  flie  relates  her  flory,  and  implores  their 

afiillancc:  They  give  her  accefs  to  the  Sultan,  to  whom,  as  he  was 

riding,  attended  by  myfelf  and  others,  (he  prefented  herfelf  bathed 

in  tears,  and  proftrate  in  the  duft.     He  enquires  the  caufe  of  her 

afflidlion  : — flie  repeats  her  ftory  : — the  Sultan   is  moved  even  to 

tears,  and  orders  the  child  to  be  produced — on  finding  that  it  had 

been  publicly  fold,  he  commands  it  to  be  redeemed  j  and  refled  not 

till  he  faw  the  infant  delivered  to  its   mother — receiving  it  with  a 

profufion  of  tears,  fhe  prefl  it  to  her  bofom — the  furrounding  fpedla- 

tors  (and  I  happened  to  be  nmong  "them)  wept  with  her — (he  then 

eave  her  breall  to  the  infant  j  after  which  the  Sultan  direded  her  to 

be  feated  on   horfeback  with  her  little  one,  and  fafely  efcorted  to 

her  own  quarters.    Confider  (exclaims  the  affedionate  and  religious 

Hillorian)  this  example  of  univerfal  benevolence  !   Such,  O  God  ! 

haft  thou  created   this  merciful  fovercign,  to  appear  mofl  worthy 

of  thy  own  infinite  mercy.— Confider  this  teflimony,  which  even 

his 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  ri^ 

his  enemies  have  borne  of  hi?  companionate  and  generous  difpo- 

fttion  !  BOHAD.  SCHULTENS,    Pagei62. 


NOTE   Xir.      Verse  194, 

A  faithful  Chronicler  in  plain  Froijart.']  John   Frolflart,  Canon 
and  Treafurer  of  the  collegiate  church  of  Chimay,  in  Henault,  was 
born  at  Valenciennes,  a  city  of  that  province,  in  I337>  according  to 
the  conjedure   of  that   elaborate  and  ingenious  antiquarian  Mr.  dc 
St.  Palaye ;   who  has   amply   illuflrated  the  Life  and  Writings  of 
this  engaging  Hiflorian,  in  a  feries  of  differtations  among  the  Me- 
moirs of  the  French  Academy,   Vol.  X.  XIII.  XIV. — ::t.    Palaye 
imagines,  from  a  paflage  in  the  MS  Poems  of  Froiflart,  that  his  fa- 
ther was  a  painter  of  Armories  : — and  it  is  certain  the  Hiflorian 
difcovers  a  paflion  for  all  the  pomp  and  all  the  minutias  of  heraldry : 
it  was  indeed  the  favourite  ftudy  of  that  martial  age;  and  FroifTart, 
more  the  prieil  of  gallantry  than  of  religion,  devoted  himfelf  en- 
tirely to  the  celebration  of  love  and  war. — At  the  age  of  20,  he 
began  to  write  Hiftory,  at  the  requeft  de  fon  cher  Seigneur  &  Maitre 
MeJJire     Robert    de    Namur,    Chevalier    Seigneur     de    Beaufort. 
—The  anguifh  of  unfucccfsful  love  drove  him  early  into  England, 
and  his  firft  voyage  feems  a  kind  of  emblem  of  his  future  life  ;  for 
he  failed  hither  in  a  ilorm,  yet  continued  writing  a  rondeau  in 
fpite  of  the   tempeft,   till  he  found  himfelf  on  that  coaft,  ou  Ton 
aime  mieux  la  guerre,  que  la  paix,   &  ou  les  eftrangers  font  tres- 
bien  venus,  as  he  faid  of  our  country  in  his  verfcs,  and  happily  ex- 
perienced in  his  kind  reception  at  court,  where  Philippa  of  Henault, 
the  Queen  of  Edward  the  Third,  and  a  Patronefs  of  learning,  dif- 
tinguifhed  the  young   Hiftorian,   her  countryman,  by  the  kindeft 
protedtion  j  and,  finding  that  love  had  rendered  him  unhappy,  fup- 
plied  him  with  money  and  with  horfes,  that  he  might  prefent  him- 
felf with  every  advantage  before  the  objecfl  of  his  paffion. — Love 
foon  efcorted  him  to  his  miftrefs— 'but  his  addreffes  v/ere  again  un- 
fucccfsful; and,   taking   a  fecond  voyage  to   England,  he  became 
9  Secretary 


120 


NOTES      TO      THE 


Secretary  to  his  royal  patronefs  Philippa,  in  1361,  after  having  pre- 
lented  to  her  Ibme  portion  of  iiis  Hillory. — He  continued  five  years 
in  her  fervice,  entertaining  her  majelly  de  beaux  dtciwz  &  traiSlez 
iimourcux:  in  this  period  he  paid  a  vifit  to  Scotland,  and  was  enter- 
tained I  5  days  by  William  Earl  Douglas. — In  j  366,  when  Edward 
the  Black  Prince  was  preparing  for  the  war  in  Spain,  Froiflart  was 
with  him  in  Gafcony,  and  hoped  to  attend  him  during  the  whole 
courfe  of  that  important  expedition  : — but  the  Prince  fent  him  back 
to  the  Queen  his  mother. — Ho  continued  not  long  in  England,  as 
he  vifited  many  of  the  Italian  courts  in  the  following  year,  and 
during  his  travels  fuftained  the  irreparable  lofs  of  that  patronefs, 
to  whofe  bounty  he  had  been  fo  much  indebted. — Philippa  died 
1 369,  and  FroifTart  is  reported  to  have  written  the  life  of  his  amiable 
protedlrefs ;  but  of  this  performance  the  refearches  of  St.  Palaye 
could  difcover  no  trace. 

After  this  event,  he  retired  to  his  own  country,  and  obtained  the 
benefice  of  Leftines,  in  the  diocefe  of  Cambray. — But  the  cure  of 
fouls  was  an  office  little  fu.tcd  to  the  gay  and  gallant  Froillart. — 
His  genius  led  him  liill  to  travel  from  caftle  to  caflle,  and  from 
court"  to  court,  to  ufe  the  words  of  Mr.  Warton,  who  has  made 
occafional  mention  of  our  author,  in  his  elegant  HLftory  of  Englilh 
Poetry. — Froilfart  now  entered  into  the  fervice  of  the  Duke  of  Bra- 
bant ;  and,  as  that  Prince  was  himfelf  a  poet,  Froifiart  colleded  all 
the  compcfifions  of  his  mall:cr,  and  adding  fomeof  his  own,  formed 
a  kind  of  romance,  which  he  calls 

Un  Livre  de  Meliador 

Lc  Chevalier  au  foleil  d'or, 

iind  of  which,  in  one  of  his  later  poems,  he  gives  the  following  ac- 
count ; 


Dedans  ce  Roinant  font  enclofes 
Toutes  les  chancons  que  jadis. 


Dont 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  I2i 

Dont  Tame  foit  en  paradis. 
Que  fit  le  bon  Due  de  Braibant, 
Wincelaus,  dont  on  parla  tantj 
Car  un  prince  fu  amorous. 
Gracious  &  chevalerous, 
Et  le  livre  me  fit  ja  faire. 
Par  tres  grant  amoureus  a  faire, 
Coment  qu'il  ne  le  veift  oncques. 

.  The  Duke  died  in  1384,  before  this  work  was  completed  ;  and 
FroilBrt  foon  found  a  new  patron  in  Guy  earl  of  Blois,  on  the 
inarri^ge-ofwhofeSon  he  wrote  a  Paftoral,  entitled  Le  Temple 
d'Honueur.^The  earl  having  requefted  him  to  reiume  his  Hiftory, 
■he  travelled  for  that  i-.^rpofe  to  the  celebrated  court  of  Gaflon  earl 
of  Foix,  whofe  high  reputation  for  every  knightly  virtue  attrafted 
to  his  reudence  at  Orlaix,  thofe  martial  adventurers,  from  whole 
mouth  it  was  the  delight  of  Froiilart  to  colledt  the  materials  of  his 
Hiftory.— The  courteous  Gafton  gave  him  the  mod  flattering  recep- 
tion •  he  faid  to  him  with  a  fmile  (&  en  bon  Fran9ois)  "  qu'il  le 
connoiffoit  bien,  quoyqu'il  ne  I'euft  jamais  veu,  mais  qu'il  avoit 
bien  oui  parler  de  luy,  &  le  retint  de  fon  hoftel."-It  became  a  fa- 
vourite amufement  of  the  Earl,  to  hear  Froiflart  read  his  Romance 
of  Meliador  after  fupper.— He  attended  in  the  caftle  every  night  at 
12,  when  the  Earl  fate  down  to  table,  liftened  to  him  with  ex- 
treme attention,  and  never  difmlffed  him,  till  he  had  made  him 
vuider  tout  ce  qui  eftoit  refte  du  vin  de  fa  bouche.— Froiffart 
gained  much  information  here,  not  only  from  his  patron,  who  was 
himfelf  very  communicative,  but  from  various  Knights  of  Arragon 
and  England,  in  the  retinue  of  the  Duke  of  Lancafter,  who  then 
refided  at  Bourdeaux.— After  a  long  refidence  in  this  brilliant  court, 
and  after  receiving  a  prefent  from  the  liberal  Gallon,  which  he 
mentions  in  the  following  verfes  : 

R  Je 


122  NOTES      TO      THE 

Je  pris  cong^  &  11  bons  Contes 
Me  fit  par  fa  chambre  des  comptes 
Delivrer  quatrevins  florins 
D'Arragon,   tous  pefans  6c  fins 
Et  mon  livre,  qu'il  m'ot  laifie. 

Frohrart  departed  in  the  train  of  the  Countefs  of  Boulogne,  related 
to  the  earl  of  Foix,  and  juft  leaving  him,  to  join  her  new  hufband 
the  Duke  of  Berry. — In  this  expedition  our  Hiftorian  was  robbed 
near  Avignon,  and  laments  the  unlucky  adventure  in  a  very  long 
poem,  from  which  Mr.  de  St.  Palaye  has  drawn  many  particulars 
of  his  life.  The  ground- work  of  this  poem  (which  is  not  in  the 
lift  of  our  Authors  poetical  pieces,  that  Mr.  Warton  has  given  us 
from  Pafquier)  feems  to  have  a  ftrong  vein  of  humour. — It  is  a 
dialogue  between  the  Poet  and  the  fingle  Florin  that  he  has  left 
out  of  the  many  which  he  had  either  fpent,  or  been  obliged  to  fur- 
render  to  the  robbers. — He  reprefents  himfelf  as  a  man  of  the  moft 
expenfive  turn  :  in  25  years  he  had  fquandered  two  thoufand  franks, 
befides  his  ecclefiaftical  revenues.  The  compofition  of  his  works 
had  coft  him  700  j  but  he  regretted  not  this  fum,  as  he  expected  to 
be  amply  repaid  for  it  by  the  praife  of  pofterity. 

After  having  attended  all  the  feftivals  on  the  marriage  of  the 
Duke  of  Berry,  having  traverfed  many  parts  of  France,  and  paid  a 
vifit  to  Zeland,  he  returned  to  his  own  country  in  1390,  to  continue 
his  Hiftory  from  the  various  materials  he  had  colledled. — But  not 
fatisfied  with  the  relations  he  had  heard  of  the  war  in  Spain,  he 
went  to  Middlebourgh  in  Zeland,  in  purfuit  of  a  Portugueze  Knight, 
Jean  Ferrand  Portelet,  vaillant  homme  &c  fage,  &  du  Confeil  du  Roy 
de  Portug.il.  From  this  accompliOied  foldier  Froiilart  expedled. 
the  moft  perfeft  information,  ias  an  ocular  witnefs  of  thofe  fcenes, 
which  he  now  wiftied  to  record. — The  courteous  Portelet  received 
our  indefatigable  Hiftorian  with  all  the  kindnefs  which  his  en- 
thufiafm  defcrvcd,  and  in  fix  days,  which  they  paffed  together,  gave 
him  all  the  intelligence  he  defired. — Froifiart  now  returned  home, 

and 


SECOND      EPISTLE. 


123 


and  finlflied  the  third  book  of  his  Hiftory. — Many  years  had  part: 
fince  he  had  bid  adieu  to  England  :  taking  advantage  of  the  truce 
then  eftabliflied  between  France  and  that  country,  he  paid  it  ano- 
ther vifit  in  1395,  with  letters  of  recommendation  to  the  King  and 
his  uncles.— From  Dover  he  proceeded  to  Canterbury,  to  pay  his 
devoirs  at  the  fhrine  of  Thomas  of  Becket,  and  to  the  memory  of 
the  Black  Prince. — Here  he  happened  to  find  the  fon  of  that  hero, 
the  young  King  Richard,  whom  devotion  had  alfo  brought  to  make 
his  offerings  to  the  fafhionable  Saint,  and  return  thanks  to  Heaven 
for  his  fucceffes  in  Ireland. — Froiffart  fpeaks  of  this  adventure, 
and  his  own  feelings  on  the  great  change  of  fcene  that  had  taken 
place  fince  his  laft  vifit  to  England,  in  the  following  natural  and 
lively  terms  : — Le  Roy  .  .  .  vint  .  .  a  trez  grant  arroy,  et  bien  accom-> 
paignede  feignneurs,  de  dames  et  demoifelles,  et  me  mis  entre  eulx, 
&  entre  elles,  et  tout  me  fembla  nouvel,  ne  je  ny  congnoiffove 
perfonne ;  car  le  tems  eftoit  bien  change  en  Angleterre  depuis  le 
terns  de  vingt  &  huyt  ans  :  et  en  la  compagnie  du  roy  n'avoit 
nuls  de  fes  oncles  ,  .  .  .  fi  fus  du  premier  ainfi  que  tout  efbahy  .  .  , 
Tho'  Froiffart  was  thus  embarraffed  in  not  finding  one  of  his  old 
friends  in  the  retinue  of  the  King,  he  foon  gained  a  new  Patron  in 
Thomas  Percy,  Mafter  of  the  Houfehold,  who  offered  to  prefent 
him  and  his  letters  to  Richard  ;  but  this  offer  happening  on  the 
eve  of  the  King's  departure,  it  proved  too  late  for  the  ceremony— 
Le  Roy  eftoit  retrait  pour  allerdormir. — And  on  the  morrow,  when 
the  impatient  Hiflorian  attended  early  at  the  Archbifhop's  palace, 
where  the  King  flept,  his  friend  Percy  advifed  him  to  wait  a  more 
convenient  feafon  for  being  introduced  to  Richard. — Froiffart  ac-- 
quiefced  in  this  advice,  and  was  confoled  for  his  difappointment 
by  falling  into  company  with  an  Englifli  Knight,  who  had  attended 
the  King  in  Ireland,  and  was  very  willing  to  gratify  the  curiofity 
of  the  Hifiiorian  by  a  relation  of  his  adventures. — This  was  Wil- 
liam de  Lifle,  who  entertained  him,  as  they  rode  along  together, 
with  the  marvels  of  St.  Patrick's  Cave,  in  which  he  afiured  him  he 
had  paffed  a  night,  and  feen  wonderful  vifions. — Though  our  ho- 

R   2  nefi: 


124  NOTES      TO      THE 

neft  Chronicler  is  commonly  accufed  of  a  paffion  for  the  marvel- 
lous, with  an  excefs  of  credulity,  he  fays  very  fenfibly  on  this  oc- 
cafion,  de  cette  matiere  je  ne  luy  parlay  plus  avant,  et  m'en  ceffay, 
car  voulentiers  je  luy  eulTe  demande  du  voyage  d'Irlande,  et  luy  eu 
voulaye  parler,  et  mettre  en  voye. — It  appears  plainly  from  this 
paiTage,  that  our  Hiftorian  was  more  anxious  to  gain  information 
concerning  the  fcenes  of  real  a(flion,  than  to  lillen  to  tlie  extrava- 
gant ficflions  of  a  popular  legend. — But  here  he  was.  again  difap- 
pointed. — New  companions  joined  them  on  the  road,  and  their 
hiftorical  conference  was  thus  interrupted. — Thefe  mortifications 
were  foon  repaid  by  the  kind  reception  he  met  with  from  the 
Duke  of  York,  who  faid  to  him,  when  he  received  the  recom- 
mendatory letter  from  the  Earl  of  Henault,  "  Maiflrc  Jehan  tenez 
vous  toujours  deles  nous,  &  nos  gens,  nous  vous  ferons  tout 
amour  &  courtoifie,  nous  y  fommes  tenus  pour  Tamour  du  tcms 
pafle  &  de  notre  dame  de  mere  a  qui  vous  futes  ;.  nous  en  avons 
bien  la  fouvenance." — With  thefe  fl.ittering  marks  of  remembrance 
and  favour  the  Duke  prefented  him  to  the  King,  lequel  me  recent 
joyeufement  et  doulccment  (continues  Froiflart)  .  .  et  ne  dift  que. 
je  fufle  le  bien  venus  et  fi  j 'a voye  efte  de  I'hoftel  du  Roy  fon  Ayeul 
&  de  Madame  fon  Ayeule  encores  eftoys  je  de  Thoftel  d'Angleterre. 

Some  time  however  elapfed,    before   he  had  an  opportunity 

of  prefenting  his  romance  of  Mcliador,  which  he  had  prepared  for 
the  King, — The  Duke  of  York  and  his  other  friends  at  length  ob- 
tained for  him  this  honour  :  He  gives  the  following  curious  and' 
particular  account  of  the  ceremony  :  et  voulut  veoir  le  Roy  mon 
livre,  que  je  luy  avoye  apport^.  Si  le  vit  en  fa  chambre  :  car  tout 
pourveu  je  I'avoye,  et  luy  mis  fur  fon  lift.  Et  Tors  it  I'ouvrit  et 
regarda  dedans,  et  luy  pleut  tres  grandement.  Et  plaire  bien  luy 
devoit :  car  il  eftoit  enlumine,  cfcrit  et  Hiftorie,  &  convert  de 
vermeil  veloux  a  dix  cloux  d'argent  dorez  d'or  et  rofes  d'or  ou 
meillicu  a  deux  gros  fermaulx  dorez  et  richement  ouvrez  ou  meil- 
lieu  rofiers  d'or.  Adonc  me  demanda  le  Roy  de  quoy  il  tr.uiftoit : 
et  je  luy  dis  d'amours.  De  celle  refponce  fut  tout  resjouy,  et  re- 
5  garda 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  125 

garda  dedans  le  livre  en  plufieurs  lieux,  et  ylyfit,  car  moult  bien 
parloit  et  lyfoit  Fran^oys,  et  puis  le  fift  prendre  par  ung  fien 
Chevalier,  qui  fe  nomme  Meffire  Richard  Credon,  et  porter  en 
fa  chambre  de  retrait  dont  il  me  fifl:  bonne  chei-e. 

After  pafling  three  months  in  this  court,  Froifll^rt  took  his  leave 
of  the  munificent  but  ill-fated  Richard.  In  the  lafl:  chapter  of  his 
Hiltory,  where  he  mentions  the  unfortunate  end  of  this  Monarch, 
he  fpeaks  v^^ith  an  honeft  and  affedting  gratitude  of  the  liberal  pre- 
fent  he  received  from  him  on  his  departure  from  England. — It  was 
a  goblet  of  filver  gilt,  weighing  two  marks,  and  filled  with  a  hun- 
dred nobles. 

On  leaving  England,  he  retired  to  his  own  country,  and  is  fup- 
pofed  to  have  ended  his  days  at  his  benefice  of  Chimay,  but  the 
year  of  his  death  is  uncertain. — There  is  an  antient  tradition  in 
the  country,  fays  Mr.  de  Saint  Palaye,  that  he  was  buried  in  tho 
chapel  of  St.  Anne,,  belonging  to  his  own  church. — That  ingeni- 
ous antiquarian  produces  an  extradt  from  its  archives,  in  which  the 
death  of  Froifilirt  is  recorded,  but  without  naming  the  year,  in  the. 
mofl  honourable  terms. — His  obit  bears  the  date  of  Odlober,  and 
is  followed  by  20  Latin  verfes,  from  which  I  feledl  fuch  as  appear. 
to  me  the  mofl:  worth  tranfcribing. 

Gallorum  fubllmis  honos,  6c  fama  tuorum. 

Hie  FroilTarde  jaces,  fi  modo  forte  jaces. 
Hiftorie  vivus  ftuduifti  reddere  vitam, 

Defundto  vitam  reddet  at  ilia  tibi. 
Proxima  dum  propriis  fiorebit  Francia  fcriptis, 

*  Famia  dum  ramos,  *  Blancaque  fundet  aquas, 
Urbis  ut  hujus  honos,   templi  fie  fama  vigebis, 

Teque  ducem  Hiftorie  Gallia  tota  colet, 
Belgica  tota  colet,   Cymeaque  vallis  amabit, 

Dum  rapidus  proprios  Scaldis  obibit  agros> 


*  •  A  foreft  and  a  river  near  Chimay, 


As 


126  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 

As  I  have  never  met  with  any  fatisfadlory  account  of  Froiflart's 
life  in  our  language,  I  have  been  tempted  to  fwell  this  Note  to  an 
inordinate  length  ;  yet  it  feems  to  me  fl:ill  neceflary  to  add  a  few 
lines  more  concerning  the  charadler  both  of  the  Hiftorian  and  the 
Poet. — A  long  feries  of  French  Critics,  to  whom  even  the  judicious 
Bayle  has  been  tempted  to  give  credit,  havefeverelycenfured  Froifllirt, 
as  the  venal  partizan  of  the  Englifh,  and  they  have  accufed  his  lail 
Editor,  Sauvage,  of  mutilating  his  author,  becaufe  they  could  find 
in  his  edition  no  proofs  of  their  charge. — The  amiable  St.  Palaye 
has  defended  le  bon  FroifTart,  as  he  is  called  by  honefl:  Montaigne, 
from  this  unjufl:  accufation,  and  done  full  juftice  at  the  fame  time 
to  the  injured  reputation  of  his  exadt  and  laborious  editor. 

It  may  ferve  as  a  kind  of  memento  mori  to  poetical  vanity  to 
refle<5l,  that  Froifllirt  is  hardly  known  as  a  Poet,  though  his  fer- 
tile pen  produced  30,000  verfes,  which  were  once  the  delight  of 
Princes,  and  the  fav^ourite  ftudy  of  the  gallant  and  the  fair. — How 
far  he  deferved  the  oblivion,  into  which  his  poetical  compofitions 
have  fallen,  the  reader  may  conceive  from  the  following  judgment 
of  his  French  Critic  ;  with  whofe  ingenious  reflection  on  the  im- 
perfecflions  attending  the  early  flate  both  of  Poetry  and  Painting, 
I  fliall  terminate  this  Note. 

On  peut  dire  en  general  au  fujet  dcs  Poefies  de  Froifl'art,  que 
I'invention  pour  les  fujets  lui  manquoit  autant  que  I'imagination 
pour  les  ornemens  ;  du  refte  le  ftyle  qu'il  employe,  moins  abon- 
dant  que  diffus,  offre  fouvent  la  repetition  ennuyeufe  des  memes 
tours,  &  des  memes  phrafes,  pour  rendre  des  idees  afl'ez  co.iimu- 
nes  :  cependant  la  fimplicitc  et  la  liberte  de  fa  verfification  ne 
font  pas  toLiiours  depourvues  de  graces,  on  y  rencontre  de  terns  en 
tems  quelqucs  images  6c  plufieurs  vers  de  fuite  dont  I'exprtflion 
eft  affez  heureufc. 

Tel  etoit  alors  I'etat  de  notre  Poefie  Fran^oife,  et  le  fort  de  la 
Peinture  ctoit  a  peu  pres  le  meme.  Ces  deux  arts  que  Ton  a 
toujours  coniparez  enfcmble  paroiflent  avoir  eu  une  marche  prefqu' 
uniforme    dans  leur  progres.     Les  Peintres   au  fortir  de  la  plus 

grofTiere 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  127 

grofliere  barbarie,  faifillant  d'abord  en  detail  tous  les  petits  objets 
que  la  nature  leur  prefentoit,  s'attache'rent  aux  infedtes,  aux  fleurs, 
aux  oifeaux,  les  parerent  des  couleurs  les  plus  vives,  les  deffine- 
rent  avec  une  exaditude  que  nous  admi;  ons  encore  dans  les  vignettes 
&  dans  les  miniatures  des  manufcrits  ;  lorfqu'ils  vinrent  a  repre- 
i^pter  des  figures  humaines,  ils  s'etudierent  bien  plus  a  terminer 
les  contours  &  a  exprimer  jufqu'  aux  cheveux  les  plus  fins,  qua 
donner  de  Tame  aux  vifages  &  du  mouvement  aux  corps  j  et  ces 
figures  dont  la  nature  la  plus  commune  fourniflbit  toujours  les 
modelles,  etoient  jettees  enfemble  au  hazard,  fans  choix,  fans  or- 
donnance,  fans  aucun  gout  de  compofition. 

Les  Poetes  auffi  fteriles  que  les  Peintres,  bornoient  toute  leur  in- 
duftrie  a  fcavoir  amener  des  defcriptions  proportionnees  a  leur  ta- 
lens,  et  ils  ne  les  quittoient  qu'apres  les  avoir  epuifees  ;  ils  ne  f9a- 
vent  gueres  parler  que  d'un  beau  printems,  de  la  verdure  des  cam- 
pagnes,  de  I'email  des  prairies,  du  ramage  de  mille  efpeces  d'oi- 
feaux,  de  la  clarte  et  de  la  vivacite  d'une  belle  fontaine  ou  d'un 
ruifi!eau  qui  murmure ;  quelquefois  cependant  ils  rendent  avec 
naivete  les  amufemens  enfantins  des  amans,  leurs  ris,  leurs  jeux, 
les  palpitations  ou  la  joie  d'un  coeur  amoreux  j  ils  n'imaginent  rien 
au  dela,  incapable  d'ailleurs  de  donner  de  la  fuite  et  de  la  liaifon  a 
leurs  idees. 

Notice  des  Poefies  de  FroifTart;  Memoires  de  I'Academie, 

Tom.  xiv.  p.  225. 

NOTE    XIII.      Verse  242. 

TAy  Favour,  like  the  Sun's  prolific  ray. 

Brought  the  keen  Scribe  of  Florence  into  Day.]  Nicholas  Machiavel, 
the  celebrated  Florentine,  was  firfl  patronized  by  Leo,  who  caufed 
one  of  his  comedies  to  be  afted  with  great  magnificence  at  Rome, 
and  engaged  him  to  write  a  private  Treatife  de  Reformatione  Rei- 
publiccB  Florentinse.  His  famous  political  Effay,  entitled,  "  The 
Prince,"  was  publifhed  in  1515,  and  dedicated  to  the  Nephew  of 
3  that 


128  N  O  T  E  S      T  O     T  H  E 

that  Pontiff.  The  various  judgments  that  have  been  paffed  on  this 
lingular  performance  are  a  ftriking  proof  of  the  incertitude  of  hu- 
man opinion. — In  England  it  has  received  applaufe  from  the  great 
names  of  Bacon  and  Clarendon,  who  fuppofe  it  intended  to  pro- 
niote  the  intercft  of  liberty  and  virtue.  In  Italy,  after  many  years 
of  approbation,  it  was  publicly  condemned  by  Clement  the  Vllltl^ 
at  the  inftigation  of  a  Jefuit,  who  had  not  read  the  book.  In 
France  it  has  even  been  fuppofed  inilrumental  to  the  horrid 
maffacreof  St.  Bartholomew,  as  the  favourite  ftudy  of  Catherine 
of  Medicis  and  her  Sons,  and  as  teaching  the  bloody  leflbns  of  ex- 
tirpation, which  they  fo  fatally  put  in  praAice.  Yet  one  of  his 
French  Tranflators  has  gone  fo  far  as  to  fay,  that  "  Machiavel, 
who  pallcs  among  all  the  world  for  a  teacher  of  Tyranny,  detefted 
it  more  than  any  man  of  the  age,  in  which  he  lived."  It  mud 
however  be  owned,  that  there  is  a  great  mixture  of  good  and  evil  in 
his  political  precepts.  For  the  latter  many  plaufible  apologies  have 
been  made  -,  and  it  fliould  be  remembered  to  his  honour,  that  his 
great  aim  was  to  promote  the  welfare  of  his  country,  in  exciting 
the  Honfe  of  Medicis  to  deliver  Italy  from  the  invafion  of  fo- 
reigners. 

He  is  faid  to  have  been  made  Hiftoriographer  of  Florence,  as  a 
reward  for  having  fuffered  the  torture  on  fufpicion  of  confpiring 
againft  the  government  of  that  city,  having  fupported  the  fevere 
trial  with  unfailing  refolution.  His  Hiftory  of  that  republic  he 
wrote  at  the  requell:  of  Clement  the  Vllth,  as  we  are  infori  ed  in 
his  Dedication  of  it  to  that  Pontiff.  The  ftyle  of  this  work  is  much 
celebrated,  and  the  firll  Book  may  be  regarded  as  a  model  of 
Hiftorical  abridgment. — He  died,    according  to  Paul  Jovius,    in 

1530- 

NOTE    XIV.      Verse  252. 

Nor  kf'y  O  Leo  f  was  it  ib'ine  to  raife 

T'be  great  Hiftoric  Chief  of  modern  days.'\     Francis   Guicciardin, 

born 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  129 

born  at  Florence  1482,  of  an  antient  and  noble  family,  was  ap- 
pointed a  ProfefTor  of  Civil  Law  in  that  city  at  the  age  of  23.  In 
1 5 12  he  was  fent  Embaflador  to  Ferdinand  King  of  Arragon  j 
and  foon  after  his  return  deputed  by  the  Republic  to  meet  Leo 
the  Xth  at  Cortona,  and  attend  him  on  his  public  entry  into  Flo- 
rence.— That  difcerning  Pontiff  immediately  became  his  Patron, 
ahd  raifed  him  to  the  government  of  Modena  and  Reggio.  He 
fucceeded  to  that  of  Parma,  which  he  defended  with  great  fpirit 
againft  the  French,  on  the  death  of  Leo. — He  rofe  to  the  highefl: 
honours  under  Clement  the  Vllth,  having  the  command  of  all  the 
ecclefiaflical  forces,  and  being  Governor  of  Romagna,  and  laftly  of 
Bologna,  in  which  city  he  is  faid  to  have  received  the  mofl  flatter- 
ing compliments  from  the  Emperor  Charles  V. — Having  gained 
much  reputation,  both  civil  and  military,  in  various  fcenes  of  ac- 
tive life,  he  paffed  his  latter  days  in  retirement,  at  his  villa  near 
Florence,  where  he  died  foon  after  completing  his  Hiftory,  in  the 
59th  year  of  his  age,  1540.  Notwithftanding  the  high  reputation 
of  Guicciardin,  his  Hiftory  has  been  violently  attacked,  both  as 
to  matter  and  ftyle. — The  honeft  Montaigne  inveighs  with  great 
warmth  againft  the  malignant  turn  of  its  author ;  and  his  own  coun- 
tryman Boccalini,  in  whofe  whimfical  but  lively  work  there  arc 
many  excellent  remarks  on  Hiftory  and  Hiflorians,  fuppofes  a  La- 
cedemonian throv/n  into  agonies  by  a  fmgle  page  of  Guicciardin, 
whom  he  is  condemned  to  read,  for  having  himfelf  been  guilty  of 
ufing  three  words  inflead  of  two.  The  poor  Spartan  cries  for  mer- 
cy, and  declares  that  any  tortures  are  preferable  to  the  prolixity  of 
fuch  a  Writer. — This  celebrated  Hiftorian  was  alfo  a  Poet.  The 
three  following  verfes  are  the  beginning  of  an  Epiftle,  v/hich  he 
entitled  Supplicazione  d'ltalia  al  Chriflianiflimo  Re  Franccfco  I. 

Italia  afflitta,  nuda,  e  miferanda, 
Ch'  or  de  Principl  fuoi  ftanca  ii  lagna 
A  Te,  Francefco,  quefta  Carta  manda. 

S  They 


130  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 

They  are  preferved  in  Crefcimbeni  della  volgar  Pocfia.     Vol.  v. 

p.  132. 

Among  the  letters  of  the  elder  Taffo,  there  is  a  curious  one  ad- 
dreffed  to  Guicciardin,  concerning  the  Doge  of  Genoa;  and  the 
Amori  of  the  fame  Poet  contain  tlie  following  compliment  to  the 
Hiftorian  : 

Arno,  ben  poi  il  tuo  natio  foggiorno 
Lafciar  nel  Appcnnino,  e  co  criftalli 
Scendendo  per  I'alpeflre  horride  valli 
Far  il  Tirrheno  mar  ricco,  ed  adorno  ; 
Ben  poi  di  frondc  I'uno,  e  I'altro  corno 
Ginger  contento,  e  di  fior  bianchi  e  gialli ; 
E  guidar  care,  ed  amorofe  balli 
Con  le  tue  nimphe  al  verde  fondo  intorno  ; 
Che  tra  quanti  intelletti  humano  velo 
Chiude  ne  I'alme  al  mondo  chiare,  e  conte, 
Un  tuo  figlio  e  maggiore,  e  piu  perfetto. 
Intaglia  il  nome  fuo  uel  tuo  bel  monte 
Si,  che  per  molti  fecoli  fia  letto 
Guicciardin  poi,  ch'ei  fia  falito  in  Cielo. 

Amori  di  Bernardo  Tasso, 
Vinegia  1531,  page  52. 

NOTE    XV.      Verse  262. 

With  equal  wreath  let  Davila  be  crown  d.'\  Henry  Catherine  Da- 
vila  was  the  youngeft  fon  of  Antonio  Davila,  Grand  Conftable  of 
Cyprus,  who  had  been  obliged  to  retire  into  Spain  on  the  taking 
of  that  ifland  by  the  Turks  in  1570.  From  Spain  Antonio  repaired 
to  the  court  of  France,  and  fettled  his  fon  Lewis  and  two  daughters 
under  the  patronage  of  Catherine  of  Medicis,  whofe  name  he  after- 
wards gave  to  the  young  Hiftorian,  born  1576,  at  an  antient 
caftle  in  the  territories  of  Padua,  though  generally  called  a  native 

of 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  131 

of  Cyprus.  The  little  Davila  was  brought  early  into  France  ; — 
at  the  age  of  1 8  he  fignalized  himfelf  in  the  military  fcenes  of  that 
country.  His  lafl:  exploit  there  was  at  the  fiege  of  Amiens,  where 
he  fought  under  Henry  IV,  and  received  a  wound  in  the  knee,  as  he 

relates  himfelf  in  his  Hiftory. After  peace  was  eftablifhed  in 

France,  he  withdrew  into  Italy,  and  ferved  the  Republic  of  Venice 
with  great  reputation  till  a  moft  unfortunate  adventure  put  an  end 

to  his  life  in  1631. Faffing  through  Verona  with  his  wife  and 

family,  on  his  way  to  Crema,  which  he  was  appointed  to  defend, 
and  demanding,  according  to  the  ufual  cuftom  of  perfons  in  his 
Aation,  a  fupply  of  horfes  and  carriages  for  his  retinue,  a  brutal  Ve^- 
ronefe,  called  il  Turco,  entered  the  room  where  he  and  his  family 
were  at  fupper,  and  being  mildly  reprimanded  for  his  intrufion 
by  Davila,  difcharged  a  piftol  at  the  Hiftorian,  and  fhot  him  dead 
on  the  inftant. — His  accomplices  alfo  killed  the  Chaplain  of  Davila, 
and  wounded  many  of  his  attendants.  But  his  eldeft  fon  Antonio, 
a  noble  youth  of  eighteen,  revenged  the  death  of  his  father  by 
killing  his  murderer  on  the  fpot.  All  the  confederates  were  fe- 
cured  the  next  morning,  and  publicly  executed  at  Verona. — Me- 
moire  Ifloriche,   prefixed   to   the  London  edition  of  Davila,  4to, 

1755. It  is   very  remarkable,  that  Davila  pafTes  no  cenfure  on 

the  MaiTacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. — His  charadler  of  the  Queen 
Mother  has  that  partiality,  which  it  was  natural  for  him  to  fhew 
to  the  Patronefs  of  his  family;  but  his  general  veracity  is  con- 
firmed by  the  great  authority  of  the  firfl  Duke  of  Epernon,  who, 
(to  ufe  the  words  of  Lord  Bolingbroke)  "  had  been  an  ad:or,  and 
a  principal  adlor  too,  in  many  of  the  fcenes  that  Davila  recites." 
Girard,  Secretary  to  this  Duke,  and  no  contemptible  Biographer, 
relates,  that  this  Hiflory  came  down  to  the  place  where  the  old 
man  relided,  in  Gafcony,  a  little  before  his  death  ;  that  he  read  it 
to  him  ;  that  the  Duke  confirmed  the  truth  of  the  narrations  in  it : 
and  feemed  only  furprifed  by  what  means  the  author  could  be  fo 
well  informed  of  the  moft  fecret  councils  and  meafures  of  thofe 
times." — Letters  on  Hiftory. 

S  2  NOTE 


132  NOTES      TO      THE 


NOTE    XVI.      Verse  284. 

Sarpi,  bkfi  name  !  from  every  foible  clear."]  Father  Paul,  the  mod 
amiable  and  exalted  charadlcr  that  was  ever  formed  in  monaftic 
retirement,  was  the  fon  of  Francefco  Sarpi,  a  merchant  of  Venice, 
and  born  in  that  city,  1552.  He  took  the  religious  habit  in  the 
monaftery  of  the  Servites,  1565.  After  receiving  prieil's  orders  in 
1574,  he  pafled  four  years  in  Mantua,  being  appointed  to  read 
Ledlures  on  Divinity  and  Canon  Law,  by  the  Bilhop  of  that  diocefej 
and  in  this  early  part  of  his  life,  he  is  conje^ltured  to  have  con- 
ceived the  firft  idea  of  writing  his  celebrated  Hiftory,  as  he  formed 
an  intimate  friendlhip,  during  his  refidence  in  Mantua,  with  Ca- 
millo  d'OIiva,  who  had  been  Secretary  to  Cardinal  Gonzaga  at 
the  Council  of  Trent,  and  excited  the  learned  Venetian  to  the 
arduous  talk,  which  he  fo  happily  accomplifhed  in  a  future  pe- 
riod. He  was  recalled  from  Mantua,  to  read  Lectures  on  Philofo- 
phy  in  his  own  convent  at  Venice,  which  he  did  with  great  repu- 
tation, during  the  years  1575,  1576,  and  1577. — He  went  to  Rome 
as  Procurator  General  in  1585.  Paffing  from  thence  to  Naples^ 
he  there  formed  an  acquaintance  with  the  famous  Baptifta  Porta, 
•who  has  left  this  honourable  teftimony  of  his  univerfal  knowledge: 
— Eo  dodtiorem,  fubtiliorem,  quotquot  adhuc  videre  contigerit, 
neminem  cognovimus;  natum  ad  Encyclopediam,  &c.  Nor  is  this 
an  exaggerated  compliment,  as  there  is  hardly  any  fcience  which 
efcaped  his  aftive  mind.  His  difcoveries  in  Optics  and  Anatomy 
would  be  alone  fufficient  to  immortalize  his  name,  had  he  not 
gained  immortality  by  a  ftill  nobler  exertion  of  his  mental  powers, 
in  defending  the  liberties  of  his  country  againft  the  tyranny  of 
Rome.  On  the  firft  attack  of  Pope  Paul  V.  on  two  laws  of  Ve- 
nice, very  wifely  framed  to  correct  the  abufes  of  the  clergy.  Fa- 
ther Paul  arofc  as  the  literary  champion  of  the  Republic,  and  de- 
fended its  caufe  with  creat  fpirit  and  temper,  in  various  compofi- 
tions ;  though  he  is  faid  not  to  be  Author  of  the  Treatife  generally 

afcribed. 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  133 

afcribed  to  him  on  the  occafion,  and  entitled,  'the  Rights  of  Sove- 
reigf2s,  &c. — His  chief  performance  on  the  fubjedl  was  Con- 
fiderazioni fopra  le  Cenfure  di  Paolo  V.  The  Venetians  fliewed  a 
juft  admiration  of  the  fublime' virtue  of  a  Monk,  who  defended 
fo  nobly  the  civil  rights  of  his  country  againfl  the  feparate  intereft 
of  the  church.  In  1606  the  Council  paffed  a  decree  in  his  favour  j 
which  I  fliall  tranfcribe  in  this  note,  becaufe  it  is  not  found  in  the 
common  Lives  of  Father  Paul,  and  becaufe  there  is  hardly  any 
objedl  more  pleafing  to  the  mind,  than  the  contemplation  of  a  free 
ftate  rewarding  one  of  its  moft  virtuous  fervants  with  liberality  and 

efteem. Continuando  il  R.  P.  M..  Paolo  da  Venezia  dell  ordine 

de  Serviti  a  preflare  alia  Signoria  Noftra  con  fingolar  Valore  quell 
ottimo  fervigio,  ch'  e  ben  conofciuto,  potendoli  dire,  ch'  egli  fra 
tutti  con  le  fue  fcritture  piene  di  profonda  dottrina  foftenti  con  va- 
lidiffimi-  fondamenti  le  potentiffime  e  validiffime  ragioni  noftre 
nella  caufa,.  che  ha  di  prefente  la  Repubblica  con  la  corte  di 
Roma,,  anteponendo  il  fervigio  e  la  foddisfazione  noftra  a  qual- 
fivoglia  fuo  particolare  ed  importante  rifpetto.  E  percio  cofa 
giufta  e  ragionevole,  e  degna  dell  ordinaria  munificenza  di  quefto 
Configlio,  il  dargli  modo,  con  che  pofla  afficurare  la  fua  Vita  da 
ogni  pericolo,  che  gli  poteiTe  fopraftare,  e  fovvenire  infieme  alii 
fuoi  bifogni,  bench,  egli  non  ne  faccia  alcuna  iftanza,  ma  piutofto 
fi  moftri  alieno  da  qualfivoglia  ricognizione,  che  fi  abbia  intenzione 
di  ufar^li,.  Tal  e  la  fua  modeftia,  e  cofi  grande  il  defiderio,  che 
ha  di  far  conofcere,  che  nefTuna  pretenfione  di  premio,  ma  la  fola 
divozione  fuaverfo  la  Repubblica,  e  la  giuftizia  della  Caufa  lo  muo- 
vano  adoperarfi  con  tantoftudioe  con  tante  fatiche  alii  fervizi  noftri. 
Percio  andera  parte,  che  alio  ftipendio,  il  quale  a'  28  del  Mefe  di 
Gennaio  pafTato  fu  aflegnato  al  fopradetto  R.  P.  M.  Paolo  da  Ve- 
nezia di  Ducati  duecento  all  anno,  (iano  accrefciuti  altri  ducati  due^ 
cento,  ficche  in  avvenire  abbi.i  ducati  quattrocento  accioche  ref- 
tando  confolato  per  quefta  fpontanea  e  benigna  dimoftrazione  pub- 
blica,  con  maggior  ardore  abbia  a  continuare  nel  fuo  buono  e  divoto 
fervizio,  e  polla  con  quefto  aflequamento  provvedere  maggiormente 

alia. 


134 


NOTES      TO      THE 


alia  ficurezza  dclla  fua  Vita. The  generous  care  of  the  Republic 

to  reward  and  preferve  fo  valuable  a  fervant,  could  not  fecure  him 
from  the  bafe  attempts  of  that  enemy,  whom  his  virtue  had  pro- 
voked. In  1607,  after  Venice  had  adjufted  her  difputes  with  Rome, 
by  the  mediation  of  France,  the  firll:  attack  was  made  on  the  life 
of  Father  Paul.  He  was  befet  near  his  convent,  in  the  evening,  by 
five  aflaffins,  who  ftabbed  him  in  many  places,  and  left  him  for 
dead.  He  recovered,  under  the  care  of  the  celebrated  Acquapen- 
dente,  appointed  to  attend  him  at  the  public  charge ;  to  whom,  as 
he  was  fpeaking  on  the  depth  of  the  principal  wound,  his  patient 
faid  pleafintly,  that  the  world  imputed  it  ftylo  Romanse  Curix.— 
The  crime  is  generally  fuppofcd  to  have  proceeded  from  the  Jefuits; 
but  the  fecret  authors  of  it  were  never  clearly  difcovered,  though 
the  five  rufiians  were  traced  by  the  Venetian  Ambaflador  in  Rome, 
where  they  are  faid  to  have  been  well  received  at  firft,  but  failing 
afterwards  in  their  expefted  reward,  to  have  periflied  in  mifery  and 
want.  The  Senate  of  Venice  paid  fuch  attention  to  Father  Paul, 
fiS  exprefled  the  highefl:  Cenfe  of  his  merit,  and  the  moft  affedlionate 
folicitude  for  his  fafety.  They  not  only  doubled  his  ftipend  a  fe- 
cond  time,  but  entreated  him  to  chufe  a  public  refidence,  for  the 
greater  fecurlty  of  his  perfon.  The  munificence  and  care  of  the 
Republic  was  equalled  by  the  modefty  and  fortitude  of  their  fer- 
vant. He  chofe  not  to  relinquiHi  his  cell;  and,  though  warned  of 
various  machinations  againft  his  life,  he  continued  to  ferve  his 
country  with  unabating  zeal ;  difcovering,  in  his  private  letters  to 
his  friends,  the  moft  heroic  calmnefs  of  mind,  and  faying,  in  anfwer 
to  their  admonitions,  that  "no  man  lives  well,  who  is  too  anxious 

for  the    prefervation    of  life." "^'et    the  apprehenhons    of    his 

friends  had  too  juft  a  foundation.  In  1609  another  confpiracy  was 
formed,  to  murder  him  in  his  fleep,  by  fome  perfons  of  his  own 
convent — hut  their  tre;ichery  was  happily  difcovered. — From  this 
time  he  lived  in  more  cautious  retirement,  ftill  devotinrvhimfeh  to 
the  fervice  of  the  Republic  on  various  occafions,  and  acquiring  new 
reputation  by  many  compofitions.  At  length  the  world  was  fur- 
prized 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  135 

prized  by  his  Hiflory  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  firft  publiflied  at 
London,  1619  ;  with  the  fiftitious  name  of  Pietro  Soave  Polano  j 
and  dedicated  to  James  the  Ift,  by  Antonio  de  Dominis,  the  cele-» 
brated  Archbifhop  of  Sp:.litro,.  who  fpeaks  of  the  concealed  Author 
as  his  intimate  friend,  who  had  entrufted  him  with  a  manufcript, 
on  which  his  modefty  fet  a  trifling  value,  but  which  it  feemed  pro- 
per to  beflow  upon  the  world  even  without  his  confent. — The 
myftery  concerning  the  publication  of  this  noble  work  has  never 
been  thoroughly  cKarcd  up,  and  various  fallities  concerning  it  have 
been  reported  by  authors  of  considerable  reputation. — It  has  even 
been  faid  that  James  the  Ift  had  fome  fhare  in  the  compofition  of  the 
book — if  he  had,  it  was  probably  in  forming  the  name  Pietro  Soave 
Polano,  which  is  an  anagram  of  Paolo  Sarpi  Veneziano,  and  the 
only  part   of  the  book   which  bears   ar^y   relation   to  the  ftyle  or 

tafte  of  that  Monarch. Father  Paul  was  foon  fuppofed  to  be  the 

real  Author  of  the  work  in  queftion.  The  Prince  -of  Conde,  on 
a  vifit  to  his  cloyfter,  exprefsly  alked  him,  if  he  was  fo — to  which 
he  modeftly  replied,  that  at  Rome  it  was  well  known  who  had 
written  it. — He  enjoyed  not  many  years  the  reputation  arifing  from 
this  mafterly  production — in  1623  a  fever  occalioned  his  death, 
which  was  even  more  exemplary  and  fublime  than  his  life  itfelf. 
—He  prepared  himfelf  for  approaching  diffolution  with  the  molt 
devout  compofure  j  and,  as  the  liberty  of  his  country  was  the  dar- 
ling objecft  of  his  exalted  mind,  he  prayed  for  its  prefervation 
with  his  lafl  breath,  in  the  two  celebrated  words  Eflo  Per- 
petua. 

There  is  a  fingular  beauty  in  the  charadler  of  Father  Paul, 
which  is  not  only  uncommon  in  his  profeffion,  but  is  rarely  found 
in  human  nature.^ — Though  he  palTed  a  long  life  in  controverfy  of 
the  moft  exafperating  kind,  and  was  continually  attacked  in  every, 
manner  that  malignity  could  fuggeft,  both  his  writings  and  his 
heart  appeared  perfedily  free  from  a  vindiftive  fpirit — devoting  all. 
the  powers  of  his  mind  to  the  defence  of  the  public  caufe,  he 

feemed 


136  NOTES      TO      THE 

feemed  entirely  to  forget  the  injuries  that  were  perpetually  offered 
to  his  own  perfon  and  reputation. 

His  conftitution  was  extremely  delicate,  and  his  intenfe  applica- 
tion expofed  him  to  very  frequent  and  violent  diforders  ;  thefe  he 
greatly  remedied  by  his  fingular  temperance,  living  chiefly  on 
bread,  fruits,  and  water. — This  impcrfedl  account  of  a  character 
deferring  the  nobleft  elogium,  is  principally  extrafted  from  an  oc- 
tavo volume,  entitled,  Memoire  Anedote  fpettanti  a  F.  Paolo  da 
Francefco  Grifelini  Veneziano,  &c.  edit.  2d,  1760.  The  author  of 
this  elaborate  work  has  pointed  out  feveral  miftakes  in  the  French 
and  Englilli  accounts  of  Father  Paul  ;  particularly  in  the  anecdotes 
related  of  him  by  Burnet,  in  his  Life  of  Bifhop  Bedell,  and  by 
Mr.  Brent,  the  fon  of  his  Englifli  Tranflator. — Some  of  thefe  had 
indeed    been   obferved    before  by  Writers    of  our  own. — See  the 

General   Dictionary    under  the    article   Father  Paul. For    the 

length  and  for  the  deficiencies  of  this  Note,  I  am  tempted  to  apo- 
logize with  a  fentence  borrowed  from  the  great  Hiftorian  who  is 
the  fubjecl:  of  it : — Chi  mi  ofTervera  in  alcuni  tempi  abondare,  in 
altri  andar  riflretto,  fi  ricordi  che  non  tutti  i  campi  fono  di  ugnal 
fertilita,  ne  tutti  li  grani  meritano  d'effer  confervati,  e  di  quelli 
che  il  mietitore  vorrebbe  tenerne  conto,  qualche  fpica  anco  sfugge 
la  prefa  della  mano,  o  il  filo  della  falce,  coli  comportando  la  con- 
ditione  d'ogni  mietitura  che  refli  anco  parte  per  rifpigolare. 

NOTE    XVII.       Verse  312. 

The  clear  Oforius,  in  his  clajjic  phrafe."]  Jerom  Oforius  was  born  of 
a  noble  family  at  Lifbcn,  1506.  He  was  educated  at  the  univerfity 
of  Salamanca,  and  afterwards  ftudied  at  Paris  and  Bologna.  On 
his  return  to  Portugal,  he  gradually  rofe  to  the  Bifhopric  of  Sylves, 
to  w  hich  he  was  appointed  by  Catherine  of  Aullria,  Regent  of  the 
kingdom  in  the  minority  of  Sebaflian.  At  the  requefl  of  Cardinal 
Henry  of  Portugal,  he  wrote  his  Hiflory  of  King  Emanuel,  and 

?  the 


SECOND      EPISTLE. 


137 


the  expedition  of  Gama — which  his  great  contemporary  Canioens 
made  at  the  fame  time  the  fubjedl  of  his  immortal  Lufiadj  a  poem 
which  has  at  length  appeared  with  due  luflre  in  our  language,  be- 
ing tranflated  with  great  fpirit  and  elegance  by  Mr.  Mickle.     It  is 
remarkable,  that  the  Hiftory  of  Oforius,  and  the  Epic  Poem  of 
Camoens,  were  publifhed   in  the  fame  year,   1572  :  but  the  fate  of 
thefe  two  great  Authors  was  very  different ;  the  Poet  was  fuffered 
to  perifh  in  poverty,  under  the  reign  of  that  Henry,  who  patronized 
the  Hiflorian  :  yet,  allowing  for  the  difference  of  their  profeffions, 
I  am  inclined  to  think  they  poflelfed  a  fimilarity  of  mind.     There 
appear  many   traces  of  that  high  heroic  fpirit,  even  in  the  Prieft 
Oforius,  which  animated  the  Soldier  Camoens :  particularly  in  the 
pleafure,  with  which  he   feems  to  defcribe  the  martial  manners  of 
his  countrymen,   under   the   reign  of  Emanuel. — Illius  astate  (fays 
the   Hiflorian,  in  the  clofe  of  his  manly  work)  inopia  in  exilium 
pulfa  videbatur  :  mceflitis  locus  non  erat :  querimoniae  filebant : 
omnia  choreis  &  cantibus  perfonabant :  ejufmodi  ludis  aula  regia 
frequenter  obleftabatur.     Nobiles  adolefcentes  cum  virginibus  re- 
giis  in  aula  fine   ulla  libidinis  fignificatione  faltabant,  et  quamvis 
honefliflimis  amoribus  indulgerent,  virginibus  erat  infitum,  nemi- 
nem  ad  familiaritatem  admittere,  nifi  ilium  qui  aliquid  fortiter  & 
animofe  bellicis  in  rebus  effeciffet.      Pueris  enim  nobilibus,   qui  in 
aula  xegia   verfabantur,    non  erat    licitum    pallium  virile    fumere, 
antequam  in  Africam  trajicerent  6c  aliquod  inde  decus  egregium  re- 
portarent.     Et   his  quidem  moribus  erat   illius  temporis   nobilitas 
inflituta,  ut  multi  ex  illius  domo  viri  omni  laude  cumulati  prodi- 
rent. — This   is  a  flriking  pidture   of  the   manners   of  chivalry,    to 
which  Portugal   owed  much   of  its  glory  in  that  fpleiidid  period. 
There  is  one  particular  in  the  character  of  Oforius,   v.hich,   conl;- 
deringhis  age  and  country,  deferves  the  highefl  encomium;   I  mean 
his  tolerating  fpirit.      In  the  firfl  book  of  his  Hiftory,  he  fpeaks  of 
Emanuel's  cruel  perfecution  of  the  Jews  in  the  following  generous 
and  exalted  language  : — Fuit  quidem  Jioc  nee  ex  lege  nee  ex  religione 
factum.     Quid  enim  r   Tu  rebelles  animos  nullaquc  nd  id  fufcepta 


reiigione 


138  NOTES      TO      THE 

reli^'^ione  conftridlos,  adigas  ad  credendum  ea,  quae  fumma  conten- 
tione  afpcrnantur  &  refpuunt  ?  Idque  tibi  affiimas,  ut  libertatem 
voluntatis  impcdias,  &  vincula  mentibus  effraenatis  injicias  ?  at  id 
neque  fieri  poteft,  ncque  Chrifti  fa n (51  i (Tim urn  numen  approbat. 
Voluntarium  enim  facrificium,  non  vi  et  malo  coadum  ab  homini- 
bus  cxpetit,   neque  vim  mentibus  inferri  fed  voluntates  ad  ftudium 

vers  religionis  allici  &  invitari  jubet Poftremo  quis  non  vi- 

det et  ita  religionem  per  religionis  fimulationem  indignifli- 

me  violari  ? — Oforius  is  faid  to  have  ufed  many  arguments  to  dif- 
fuade  Sebaftian  from  his  unfortunate  expedition  into  Africa,  and  to 
have  felt  fo  deeply  the  miferies  which  befel  the  Portugueze  after 
that  fatal  event,  that  his  grief  v/as  fuppofed  to  accelerate  his  death.— 
He  expired  in  1580,  happy,  fays  De  Thou  (who  celebrates  him  as 
a  model  of  Chriftian  virtue)  that  he  died  jufl  before  the  SpanilTi 
army  entered  Portugal,  and  thus  efcaped  being  a  witnefs  to  the  de- 
folation  of  his  country. — His  various  works  were  publiflied  at 
Rome  in  1592,  by  his  nephew  Oforius,  in  four  volumes  folio, 
with  a  Life  of  their  x^uthor.  Among  thefe  are  two  remarkable 
produdions  ;  the  firft,  an  admonition  to  our  Queen  Elizabeth,  ex- 
horting her  to  return  into  the  church  of  Rome  :  the  fecond,  an 
Eflay  on  Glory,  written  with  fuch  claflical  purity,  as  to  give 
birth  to  a  report,  that  it  was  not  the  compofition  of  Oforius,  but 
the  lofl  work  of  Cicero  on  that  fubjecft. 

In  the  Lucubratknes  of  Walter  Haddon,  the  curious  reader  may 
find  a  very  fpirited  anfwer  to  the  invedlive  againft  the  Reforma- 
tion, which  the  zeal  of  the  Portugueze  BiHiop  led  him  to  addrefs 
to  Elizabeth. — The  Englilh  Civilian  defends  the  caufe  of  his  nation 
and  his  Queen  with  great  energy. — He  juftifies  the  diflblution  of 
the  monalleries  by  rcprefcnting  their  abufes  in  the  moft  glowing 
colours ;  and  he  ventures  to  affirm,  in  vindicating  the  charadler 
of  his  royal  Miftrefs,  that  her  Majefty  of  England  was  as  great 
a  Theologian  as  the  Billiop  of  Sylves  himfelf — Sacras  fcripturas 
multum  leditat,  interpretes  optimos  inter  fe  comparat,  doailfi- 
morum  Iheologorum  undique  fententias  coUigit,  fcientia  linguarum 

per 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  137 

per  fe  ipfa  excelllt,  ingenio  elt  prompto,  et  acri,  fapientis  tantuni 
ad  haecadlilbet,  quantum  vix  eft  in  ilJo  fexu  credibile:  denique  noftro- 
rum  ad  condones  ventitat,  et  fenfus  in  his  rebus  habet  partim  le- 
gendo,  partimaudiendo  tam  exercitatos,  ut  non  minus  fe tfocere poffit, 
qnam  ex  U  ^/f:L're.  Haddon.  Lucubrat.  Fag.  259. 


NOTE    XVIII.      Verse  318. 

Iberia  s  Genius  bids  jujl  Fame  allow 

As  bright  a  ivreath  to  Marianas  brow,]  John  Mariana  was  born 
1537,  at  Talavera  (a  town  in  the  diocefe  of  Toledo)  as  he  himfelf 
informs  us  in  his  famous  Eflay  Je  Rege,  which  opens  with  a  beau- 
tiful romantic  defcription  of  a  fequeftered  fpot  in  that  neighbour- 
hood, where  he  enjoyed  the  pleafures  of  literary  retirement  with 
his  friend  Calderon,  a  Minifter  of  Toledo  ;  whofe  death  he  mentions 
in  the  fame  EfTay,  commemorating  his  learning  and  his  virtues  in 
the  moft  pleafmg  terms  of  affedionate  admiration. — Mariana  was 
admitted  into  the  order  of  Jefuits  at  the  age  of  17.  lie  travelled 
afterwards  into  Italy  and  France,  and  returning  into  Spain  in  1574, 
fettled  at  Toledo,  and  died  there  in  the  87th  year  of  his  age,  1624. 
— Hearing  it  frequently  regretted,  in  the  courfe  of  his  travels,  that 
there  was  no  General  Hiftory  of  his  country,  he  engaged  in  that 
great  work  on  his  return  ;  and  publiflied  it  in  Latin  at  Toledo, 
1592,  with  a  dedication  to  Philip  the  Ild ;  where  he  fpeaks  of  his 
own  performance  with  modefly  and  manly  freedom,  and  perhaps 
with  as  little  flattery  as  ever  appeared  in  any  addrefs  of  that  na- 
ture, to  a  Monarch  continually  fed  with  the  groffeft  adulation. 

This  elaborate  work  he  tranllated  into  Spanifh,  but,  as  he  himfelf 
declares,  with  all  the  freedom  of  an  original  author.  He  publifhed 
his  Verfion  in  1601,  with  an  addrefs  to  Philip  the  Hid,  in  which 
he  laments  the  decline  of  Learning  in  his  country,  and  declares 
he  had  himfelf  executed  that  work  from  his  apprehenfion  of  its 
being  mangled  by  an  ignorant  Tranllator.  He  had  clofed  his  Hif*  • 
tory   (v/hich   begins  with  the  firil:  peopling  of  Spain)    with    the 

T  2  death 


I40  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 

death  of  Ferdinand,  in  1516  ;  but  in  a  fubfequent  edition,  in  16 17, 
he  added  to  it  a  fhort  fummary  of  events  "to  the  year  1612  :  but 
in  the  year  before  he  firfl  publiHied  the  SpaniQi  Verfion  of  his  Hif- 
tory,  he  addrcfll-d  alfo,  to  the  young  Monarch  Philip  the  Hid,  his 
famous  Effay,  which  I  have  mentioned,  and  which  was  publicly 
burnt  at  Paris,  about  20  years  after  its  publication,  on  the  fuppo- 
fition  that  it  had  excited  Ravaillac  to  the  murder  of  Henry  the 
IVth ;  though  it  was  aflerted,  with  great  probability,  by  the  Je- 
fuits,  that  the  AfTafTin  had  never  feen  the  book. — It  is  true,  indeed, 
that  Mariana,  in  this  Effay,  occafionally  defends  Clement  the  Monk,- 
who  ftabbed  Henry  the  Hid ;  and  it  is  very  remarkable,  th^t  he 
grounds  this  defence,  not  on  the  bigotted  tenets  of  a  Prieft,  who 
thinks  every  thing  lawful  for  the  intereft  of  his  church,  but  on 
thofe  fublime  principles  of  civil  liberty,  with  which  an  antient  Ro- 
man would  have  vindicated  the  dagger  of  Brutus.  Indeed,  this 
Effay  contains  fome  paffages  on  Government,  which  would  not 
have  difhonoured  even  Cicero  himfelf ;  but,  it  muff  be  owned,  they 
are  grievoudy  difgraced  by  the  laft  chapter  of  the  Work,  which 
breathes  a  furious  fpirit  of  ecclefiaffical  intolerance,  and  yet  clofes 
with  thefe  mild  and  modeft  expreflions  :  Noftrum  de  regno  et  Regis 
inftitutione  judicium  fortaffe  non  omnibus  placeat  ;  qui  volet  fe- 
quatur,  aut  fuo  potius  ftet,  fi  potioribus  argumentis  nitatur,  de 
quibus  rebus  tantopere  affeveravi  in  his  libris,  eas  nunquam  veriores 
quam  alienam  fententiam  affirmabo.  Poteft  enim  non  folum  mihi 
aliud,  aliud  aliis  videri,  fed  et  mihi  ipfii  alio  tempore.  Suam  quif- 
que  fententiam  per  me  fequatur  .  .  .  et  .  .  qui  noftra  leget  ,  .  .  me- 
mor  conditionis  humanas,  fi  quid  erratum  eft,  pio  ftudio  rempub- 
licam  juvandi  veniam  benignus  concedat  et  facilis.  This  is  not 
the  only  work  of  Mariana  which  fell  under  a  public  profcription; 
he  was  himfelf  perfecuted,  and  fuffered  a  year's  imprifonment,  for 
a  treatife,  which  fecms  to  have  been  didated  by  the  pureft  love  to 
his  country  j  it  was  againft  the  pernicious  practice  of  debafing  the 
public  coin,  and  as  it  was  fuppofed  to  refledt  on  the  Duke  of  Ler- 
ina,  called  the  Sejanus  of  Spain,  it  expofed  the  Author,  about  the 

year 


SECOND      EPISTLE. 


141 


year  1609,  to  the  perfecution  of  that  vindidive  Minifter;  from 
which  it  does  not  appear  how  he  efcaped. — Indeed  the  accounts  of 
Mariana's  life  are  very  imperfedb :  Bayle,  whom  I  have  chiefly  fol- 
lowed, mentions  a  life  of  him  by  De  Vargas,  which  he  could  not 
procure.  I  have  fought  after  this  Biographer  with  the  fame  ill 
iuccefs,  as  I  wifhed  to  give  a  more  perfed:  account  of  this  great 
Author,  whofe  perfonal  Hiftory  is  little  known  among  us,  though 
it  is  far  from  being  unv/orthy  of  attention. 

NOTE    XIX.       Verse   352. 

The  fervid  Grotius  to  her  glory  rats' d- 

A  column,  fplendid  as  the  feats  he  prats' d.^  Hugo  Grotius  was  the 
eldeft  child  of  John  de  Groot,  curator  in  the  univerfity  of  Leyden, 
and  born  at  Delft  on  the  loth  of  April  1583 — His  infancy  gave  the 
faireft  promife  of  thofe  great  and  univerfal  talents,  which  were  fo 
amply  unfolded  in  his  fubfequent  life — at  the  age  of  eleven  he  was 
celebrated  as  a  prodigy  of  learning — -when  Barnevelt  was  fent  Em- 
baffador  to  Henry  the  IVth  of  France,  in  1598,  he  took  the  young 
Grotius  in  his  train,  and  prefented  him  to  that  Monarch,  who 
honoured  the  little  fcholar  by  gracioufly  giving  him  his  picture 
and  a  chain  of  gold.  One  circumftance  was  yet  wanting  to  com- 
plete the  joy  of  Grotius  in  this  expedition  ;  and  he  was  obliged  to 
quit  France  without  obtaining  the  great  objedl  of  his  wifhes,  a  per- 
fonal acquaintance  with  the  Prefident  de  Thou.  —  He  afterwards 
exprefled  his  mortification  on  this  fubjed  in  a  letter  to  that  great 
man,  which  gave  rife  to  a  friendly  correfpondence  between  thefe 
congenial  charadlers,  highly  honourable  to  both. — On  his  return  to 
Holland,  Grotius  devoted  himfelf  to  the  pradice  of  the  law,  and 
in  1599  pleaded  his  firft  caufe  at  Delft.  In  the  exercife  of  tins 
laborious  profeffion,  he  found  fufficient  time  to  cultivate  polite 
literature — in  1599  he  publifhed  his  edition  of  Martianus  Capella, 
at  the  requefl  of  Scaliger ;  it  was  followed,  in  the  fucceedin"- 
year,  by  the  Phcenomena  of  Aratus;  and  in  1601  he  printed  bis 

2-  firft 


142  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 

fird  tragedy  of  Adamus  Exful,  a  compofition  which  might  poflibly 
give  birth  to  the  divine  performance  of  Milton,  though  its  author 
efteemcd  it  fo  Httle,  as  to  exclude  it  iVom  a  colleiftion  of  his  poems 
— Grotius,  indeed,  was  remarkably  modeft  in  eftimating  his  own 
poetical  talents  ; — few  psrfons  have  written  fo  many  verfes,  and 
thought  fo  humbly  of  their  merit. — The  public  proofs,  which  he 
had  now  given  of  his  various  erudition,  procured  him  tin  honour 
from  his  country,  the  more  flattering,  as  it  was  unlbllicited :  The 
United  Provinces,  juflly  proud  of  having  vindicated  their  liberty 
againll:  the  tyranny  of  Spain,  and  dclirous  of  commemorating  fo 
noble  an  event,  appointed  Grotij-is  their  Hiftoriographer ;  a  nomi- 
nation fo  honourable  to  a  youth,  for  fuch  he  was,  led  him  to  col- 
ledl  materials  for  that  Hiftory,  which  many  accidents  confpired  to 
prevent  his  publiihing  during  the  whole  courfe  of  his  bu(y  and 
vexatious  life. — From  his  fuccefs  at  the  bar,  he  was  promoted  to 
the  port:  of  Advocate-General;  and  in  1608  he  married  Maria 
Reigeiberg,  a  lady  of  a  rcfpedlable  family  in  Zealand,  and  a  wife, 
as  his  Biographer  obferves,  truly  worthy  of  fuch  a  hufband.  In 
1613  he  became  Penfionary  of  Rotterdam,  an  office  which  gave  him 
a  feat  in  the  Aflembly  of  the  States  :  He  was  foon  afterwards  em- 
ployed in  a  commilTion  to  England,  to  fettle  fome  national  difputes 
concerning  the  Greenland  Fifhery. — The  greatefl  pleafure  and 
advantage,  which  he  derived  fiom  this  expedition,  was  the  intimacy 
which  he  contrad:ed  in  England  with  the  celebrated  Cafaubon. 
Soon  after  his  return  to  Holland,  the  fatal  fpirit  of  religious  con- 
troverfy  produced  thofe  unfortunate,  and  well-known  diftradlions  in 
his  country,  which  led  to  the  infamous  execution  of  the  great 
and  virtuous  Barnevelt.  Grotius,  who  was  affedlionately  attached 
to  that  upright  miniller,  and  joined  with  him  in  every  meafure  to 
counteract  the  ufurping  ambition  of  Prince  Maurice,  was  thus  ex- 
pofed  to  the  opprelhon  of  that  vindidive  hero. — After  tlie  vain 
ceremony  of  an  iniquitous  trial,  he  was  condemned  to  perpetual 
imprifonment ;  and  conduced,  on  the  6th  of  June  1619,  to  the 
fortrcfs  of  Louveftein,  in  So.uth  Holland,  at  the  point  of  the 
1  ifland 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  143 

I(l:ind  formed  by  the  Vahal  and  the  Meu  e. — His  tender  and  faith- 
ful wife,  who  had  been  cruelly  debarred  from  attending  him,  even 
in  ficknefs,  during  his  confinement  at  the  Hague,  was  now  admit- 
ted to  fhare  his   prifon,   on   the   hard   condition  of  forfeiting  that 
privilege,  if  {he  ever  ventured  from  Louveftein — fhe  afterwards  ob- 
tained leave  to   come   abroad  twice  a  week: — With  the  fpirit  of  a 
Roman  Matron  fhe  refufed   the  allowance,  which  the  government 
had  affigned   for  the  maintenance  of  her  hufband — continued  for 
almoft   two  years  the   conftant  attendant  on  his  captivity — and  at 
length  became  the  glorious  inftrument  of  his  deliverance.    Grotius,. 
who  happily  experienced,  that  love  and  literature  are  unfailing  re- 
fources  under  the  moft  galling  calamity  of  human  life,   had   pur- 
fued  his  fludies  in   prifon  with  his  ufual  ardour. — He  compofed 
there,  among  other  works,  the   firft  fketch    of  his  Eflay  on  the 
Truth  of  Chriflianity,  in  a  poetical  form,    and    in   his   native  lan- 
guage.— Reports  were  fpread  by  his  enemies,   that  he  had  formed  a 
plan  for  his  efcape,  and  his  prifon  was  rigoroufly  examined.      But 
notwithftanding  the  vigilance  of  his  oppreffors,  the  afFedlionate  in- 
genuity of  his  Wife  reftored  him  to  freedom  by  the  following  ex- 
pedient : — He  had  been  allowed  to  borrow  books  from  his  friends, 
and  it  was  ufual  with  him   to  fend  fuch  as  he  had  read  in  a  cheft, 
that   went  regularly  with  his  linen   to  the  neighbouring  town    of 
Gorcum.     The  guards  were  at  firft  very  fcrupulous  in  their  exami- 
nation of  thischeft;  but  having  long  found  in  it  only  books  and  linen, 
they  were  now  accuftomed  to  let  it  pafs  unopened. — The   circum- 
itance  fuggefled  to  the  attentive  wife  of  Grotius.  the  pofiibility  of  her 
hufband's  efcape,  and  flie  perfuadcd  him  to   attempt  it  by  this  An- 
gular conveyance.      The  incidents  attending   the   adventure  were 
highly  calculated  to  encreafe  the  agitation  of  her  heart  -,  and  muft 
indeed  have  occafioned  the  failure  of  her  defign,  had  fhe  not  taken 
the  moft  ingenious  precautions  to  enfure  its  fuccefs  : — The  foldiers, 
who  carried  the  cheft  in  which  Grotius  was  inclofed,  were  alarmed 
by  its  weight  j  and  cried  out,  in   the  proverbial  language  of  their 
countrv,  that  it  muft  contain  an  Arminian — fhe  replied  with  great 

prefence 


144 


NOTES      TO      THE 


prefence  of  mind,  that  it  w^s  indeed  loaded  with  Armlnian  books : 
The  foldiers  were  flill  unfatisfied,  and  went  to  the  wife  of  their 
commanding  officer,  who  was  abfent,  to  exprefs  their  fufpicion — 
{he  replied,  that  flie  had  been  aflured,  it  contained  only  books ;  and 
bade  them  carry  it  to  the  boat— a  female  fervant  in  the  fecret  at- 
tended the  cheft,  and  faw  it  fafely  conveyed  to  the  houfe  of  Daze- 
laer,  a  friend  of  Grotius,  in  Gorcum,  from  whence  he  paflcd  in 
difguife  into  Brabant.  The  generous  contriver  of  his  efcape  now 
triumphed  in  the  fuccefs  of  her  projeft  :  being  aflured  that  her 
huiband  was  fafe,  by  the  return  of  her  fervant,  flie  avowed  what  . 
(lie  had  done,  and  was  more  clofely  confined  by  the  offended  com- 
mandant of  Louveflein.  But  flie  foon  obtained  her  liberty,  on 
prefenting  a  petition  to  the  States-General ;  though  fome  wretches 
were  found  in  that  afiembly,  brutal  enough  to  exprefs  a  defire  of 
punifliing  a  woman  for  an  ad  of  heroifm,  which,  in  Athens,  or 
in  Rome,  would  have  almofl:  rendered  her  an  objedl  of  idolatry. — 
Her  merit,  however,  has  been  juftly  celebrated  by  the  poets  of  her  , 
country  j  but  the  moft  pleafing  memorial  of  it  appears  in  a  poem  of 
Grotius,  addrefled  to  the  unfortunate  fon  of  the  Prefident  de  Thou. 

The  paflTage  does  honour  both  to  the  gratitude  and  the  genius  of  ' 

our  Author;  and  I  fliall  therefore  infert  it,  as  an  advantageous  fpeci- 
men  of  his  Latin  poetry. — In  addrefllng  his  young  friend  on  the 
vLitues  of  his  venerable  father,  he  breaks  out  into  the  following 
encomium  on  connubial  affedlion  : 

Ah  quantum  placido,  mitique  in  pcdlore  regnat 
Ilia  Venus,  quam  junxit  Hymen  j  feu  conditor  orbis, 
Atque  homines  fandte  genituri  foederis  audtor 
Hunc,  quo  difpofuit  volventem  fidera  mundum, 
Quoque  elementa  ligat,  thalamis  afpirat  amorem  j 
Scu  nofci  fugiens  penitus  vis  infita  rebus, 
Qualis  quae  chalybi  fecr^ta  potentia  gcmmnm 
Conciliat  Getici  fpedtantem  Verticis  ignes, 

Diverfos 


SECOND      EPISTLE. 


145 


Dlverfos  propriore  jugat  fub  fcedere  fexus ; 

Seu  virtutis  idem  fludium,  cognataque  morum 

Temperies  animas  imo  fub  pedlore  mifcet. 

Hoc  tuus  ille  docet  genitor :  mens,  lubrica  yitx 

EgrefTa,  et  quicquid  potuit  fortuna  minari : 

In  quam  nil  habuit  juris  vel  blanda  voluptas, 

Vel  metus,  erepta  miferandum  conjuge  vulnus 

Senfit,  et  hoc  folo  minor  eft  inventa  dolore. 

Ipfa  domus,  torus  ipfe,  et  quicquid  cernere  gratum 

Quondam  erat,  accendit  ludlum  moerentis ;  ubique 

Uxor,  et  in  vultu  dulcis  pudor,  et  fimul  alta 

Majeftas,  fermo  diftillans  melle,  virilis 

Auxilium  curas,  prudentia  rata,  fuoque 

Semet  fine  tenens,  fed  par  majoribus  aftls. 
*****  * 

*****  * 

*  *  *  *  *  *  •         * 

Nos  quoque,  fi  quifquam,  multum  debere  fatemur 
Conjugio.     Memini  poft  tot  tua  vota  precefque, 
Cynthia  cum  nonum  capto  mihi  volveret  orbem, 
Qualem  te  primum,  conjunx  fidiffima,  vidi 
Carceris  in  tenebris  :  lacrymas  abforbferat  ingens 
Vis  animi,  neque  vel  gemitu  te  ludus  adegit 
Confentire  malis  :   rurfus  nova  vincula,  fed  quje 
Te  focia  leviora  tuli,  dum  milite  claufos 
Nos  Mofa,  et  trifti  Vahalis  circumftrepit  unda. 
Hie  patriam  toties,  et  inania  jura  vocanti, 
Et  proculcatas  in  noftro  corpora  leges 
Tu  folamen  eras.    Hie  jam  te  viderat  alter 
Et  poft  fe  media  plus  parte  reliquerat  annus. 
Cum  mihi  jura  mei  per  te,  folerte  reperto, 
Reddita.     Tu  poftquam,  jam  caeca  acceperat  alvus 
Dulce  onus,  oppofitis  libabas  ofcula  clauftris  : 
Atque  ita  femoto  foribus  cuftode  locuta  es. 

U  Summc 


146  NOTES      TO      THE 

Summe  pater,  rigido  fi  non  adamante  futurum 
Stat  tibi,  fed  precibus  potis  es  gaudefque  moveri, 
Hoc  quod  noftra  fides  iucem  fervavit  in  iftarn. 
Accipe  depolitum,  tantifque  exlblve  periclis. 
Conjugii  teftor  fandtiliima  jura,  meaeque 
Spem  ibbolis,  non  hue  venio  pertasfa  malorum 
Sed  miferata  virum  :   polTum  fine  conjuge  polTum 
Quamvis  dura  pati.     Si  poll  exempla  ferocis 
Ultima  fsevicis  nondum  deferbuit  ira. 
In  me  tota  ruat :  vivam  crudele  fepulchrum  : 
Me  premat  et  triplicis  cingat  cuilodia  Valli, 
Dum  meus  setherias  fatietur  paftibus  auras 
Grotius,  et  cafus  narret  patriteque  fuofque. 
Addit;  abi  conjunx,  neque  te  nifi  libera  cernam. 
Quod  mea  fi  auderet  famam  fpondcre  CamcEna, 
Acciperet  quantis  virtuteni  laudibus  iftam 
Polieritas  ?   Nomen  non  clarius  ilia  teneret 
Admeto  regina  fuos  quae  tradidit  annos  ; 
Quajque  fuper  cincres  jecit  fe  arfura  mariti  j 
Dignaque  tarn  Bruti  thalamis  quam  patre  Catone 
Porcia,  et  in  letum  magno  comes  Arria  Paeto. 
Sed  mea  Cyrrha?os  tam  longa  adverfi  recelTus 
Praeclufere  mihi.    Nullis  fordentia  curis 
Pedtora  Phoebus  amat. 

It  was  not  without  reafon,  that  Grotius  lamented  in  the  clofe  of 
this  pafifige  his  continued  adverfity.  Few  literary  charaders  have 
been  fo  repeatedly  expofed  to  all  the  various  and  mortifying  anxie- 
ties of  public  life. — After  his  efcape  from  prifon  in  1621,  he  took 
refuge  in  France.  He  received,  indeed,  the  mod  flattering  marks 
of  regard  from  many  eminent  charaders  of  that  kingdom,  and  a 
penfion  of  three  thoufand  livres  from  Lewis  the  Xlllth  ;  but  the 
payment  of  this  gratuity,  fo  honourable  to  the  Monarch  who  be- 
ftowed  it,  was  foon  rendered  irregular  and  precarious  by  the  artifices 

of 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  147 

of  Richelieu  j  and   Grotius  was  at  length  obliged  to   feek  a  more 
independent  afylum,  merely  becaufe  he  was  of  too  firm  and  noble  ] 
a  chara6ler  to  become  the  fervile  inftrument  of  that  imperious  minif- 
ter. — He  had  paffed  however  ten  years,  and  compofed  one  of  his  moft 
celebrated  works  in   that    country — his  Treatife  de   Jure  Belli    & 
Pacis  was  begun  in  1623  at  Balagui,  a  feat  of  the  Prefident  De  Meme, 
in   the   neighbourhood  of  Senlis,  and  he   publiflied  it  at  Paris  in 
1625 — the  great  and  extenfive  reputation  which  his   writings    had 
obtained,  did  not  induce  Holland  to  atone  for  the  injuftice  v/hich 
fhe  had  exercifed  againft  one  of  the  moft  eminent  and  virtuous  of 
her  citizens — the  death  of  his  enemy  Prince  Maurice  had  tempted 
Grotius  to  hope,  that  he  might  return  with  fafety  and   honour  to 
his  native  country  ;   but  on  making  the  experiment  in  1631,  he  met 
with   much  more  ingratitude  than  he  expe<fl:ed,  and  retired  in  the 
next  year  to  Hamburg — he  there  con  trailed  an  intimacy  with  Sal- 
vias the  Vice- Chancellor  of  Sweden,  who  fent  a  favourable  account 
of  his  new  friend  to   Oxenftiern,  the   great  minifter,   who  fo  well 
fupplied  the  lofs  of  his  heroic  mafter  Guftavus :  Grotius  was  foon 
invited   to  Franckfort  by  that  penetrating  genius,  who  introduced 
him  into  the  council  of  the  young  Chriftina,  and  appointed  him  her 
Ambaflador  to  the   court    of  France  ; — it   is   faid,    however,  that 
Grotius  owed  his  connection  with  Sweden  to  the  high  fentiments, 
which  Guftavus  himfelf  had  entertained  of  his  merit,  and  to  orders 
given  by  that  Monarch  for  the  employment  of  the  celebrated  exile, 
whofe   Treatife   de  Jure  Belli  was  found  in  his  tent  after  the  fatal 
vidlory  of  Lutzen,  which  he  purchafed  with  his  life — however  this 
may  be,  Grotius  appeared  at  Paris  in  the  charadler  of  Ambaflador 
from  Sweden  1635,  and  continued  no  lefs  than  ten  years  in  a  fitua- 
tion  equally  fplendid  and  vexatious — engaged  in    the  delicate  bu- 
finefs  of  negotiating  fubfidies,   which  were   paid  with   reluftance; 
harrafted    by    the  hoftiie  intrigues   of  his  ungrateful  country,  and 
alternately  infulted   and   flattered   by   the  minifters   of  France,   he 
maintained  himfelf  witli  integrity  and  honour  in  a  difficult  and  im- 
portant  ftation,    from  which  his  various  and   powerful   enemies 

U  2  v/ere 


148  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 

were  perpetually  endeavouring  to  effecft  his  removal — After  a  ferles 
of  public  mortifications,  he  at  length  follicited  his  own  recall — he 
obtained  a  pallport  through  Holland,  was  treated  with  great  honour 
at  Amftcrdam,  and  arriving  at  Stockholm  was  flattered  with  great 
promifes  by  the  ^^een  Chriilina,  who  prelTed  hun  to  letMe  with 
his  fan:iily  in  Sweden.  From  this  however  he  excufed  himlelf,  and 
pleaded  the  tender  health  of  his  wife  as  unequal  to  fo  cold  a  climate 
— Having  obtained,  after  fome  delays,  the  Queen's  permilhon  to 
retire,  and  a  veffel  to  carry  him  to  Lubeck,  he  was  unfortunately 
fhipwrecked  on  the  coaft  of  Pomerania,  from  whence  he  traveltcit 
fixty  miles  in  an  open  waggon,  to  the  town  of  Roftock,  where, 
after  languifliing  a  few  days,   he  expired  on  the  19th  of  Auguft 

1645. For  my  very  imperfecfl  account  of  this  great  and  amiable 

man,  I  am  chiefly  indebted  to  Mr.  Burigny,  whofe  life  of  Grotius 
deferves  a  diftinguiflied  rank  among  biographical  writings,  as  it 
contains  a  very  luminous  difplay  of  much  intricate  matter,  and  a  jufl 
delineation  of  a  chara<fter  which  deferves  to  be  minutely  fludied; 
for  what  nation  can  produce  a  more  Angular  and  excelling  com- 
pound of  fcience  and  virtue,  of  genius  and  piety  ? — As  an  Hif- 
torian,  he  {hares  with  Thucydides  the  uncommon  merit  of  cele- 
brating the  fplendid  aftions  of  his  perfonal  enemies,  and  of  a  coun- 
try which  treated  him  with  the  mofl:  ungenerous  ingratitude.  It 
appears  from  one  of  his  letters  to  De  Thou,  that  he  had  made  fome 
advances  in  the  plan  at  leaft  of  his  Hiftory,  at  fo  early  a  period  as 
i6i4i  for,  after  complimenting  the  great  Hiftorian  of  France  on  his 
immortal  work,  he  adds  :  Ego  quoque  impar  fane  oneri,  fed  magno 
patriae  amore  accenfus,  flmile  opus  molior,  tanto  autem  minus  tuo, 
quanto  minor  eft  Batavia,  non  dicam  Gallia  veftra,  fed  toto  orbe.  Sed 
nee  adhuc  Varo  videor  neque  dicere  Cinna  digna :  prematur  itaque 
immaturus  labor  donee  astas  cum  judicio  tempus  quoque  emendandi 
dederit,  aut  potius  exurgat  alius,  qui  res  fcitu  per  fe  non  indignas 
didlione  commendet,  ut  eo  libentius  difcant  pofteri,  quid  Batavi 
fecerint. — We  learn  alfo  from  a  letter  to  his  brother  in  1637,  that 
the  work  was  then  finilTied,  and  that  he  thought  proper  to  delay 

3  its 


SECOND      EPISTLE. 


149 


its  publication  :  though  it  feems  to  have  been  his  favourite  per- 
formance, he  had  never  the  fatisfadlion  of  feeing  it  in  print — it  did 
not  appear  till  tw^elve  years  after  his  death,  when  his  fons  Cor- 
nelius and  Peter  addreffed  it  to  the  States  of  Holland  and  Weft 
Friefland,  in  a  Dedication  that  does  honour  both  to  their  father  and 
themfelves.— The  work  itfelf,  under  the  double  name  of  Annals  and 
Hillory,  gives  a  complete  account  of  the  moft  interefting  period, 
from  the  year  1566  to  the  truce  with  Spain  in  1609 — The  Letters  of 
Grotius  are  not  lefs  valuable  than  his  Hiftory,  as  they  contain  much 
milcellaneous  intelligence,  and  abound  with  literary  anecdotes. — His 
amiable  wife  furvived  him,  and  died  at  the  Hague — Of  their  fix 
children,  Peter  became  the  moft  eminent — he  was  fent  by  his 
country  as  her  EmbalTador  to  France  ;  and  feems  to  have  inhcited 
both  the  talents  and  the  virtues  of  his  father. — It  may  yet  be  pro- 
per to  add  to  this  long  Note  the  noble  encomium  of  Grotius  on 
Scaliger,  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  which,  as  Dr.  Johnfon 
obfer^es,  feems  to  have  been  imitated  by  Cowley,  in  the  clofe  of 
his  Elegy  on  Sir  Henry  Wooton. 

In  Mortem  Scaligeri. 

Unica  lux  faecli,  genitoris  gloria,  nemo 

Quern  puerum,  nemo  credidit  effe  fenemj 
Tam  fibi  par  femper,  quam  cundlis  celfior  unus, 

Et  qui  fe  totum  debuit  ipfe  fibi : 
Exfuperans  fama,  quos  tequat  fanguine,  rcges, 

Sceptrigeris  majus  nomen  adeptus  avis  : 
Hie  jacet  ille  capax  immenfi  Scaliger  aevi. 

Nee  fibi  mors  unquam  plus  licuifle  putet. 
Quid  querimur  raptum  ?  mens  eft  qua  vivitur  :   annos 

Ille  tot  exegit  mente  quot  orbis  habet. 
Omnia  dum  retro  mundi  veftigia  qusrit, 

Qiiaerentem  retro  deftituere  dies. 

Emenfus 


150  NOTES      TO      THE 

Emenfus  populos  &  diflbna  gentibus  ora 
Ambierat,  quantum  lumine  PhcEbus  obit. 

Teftamur,  Natura,  tibi  non  defuit  illej 
Tu  gentes  alias,  faecula  plura  dares 

Ultra  Scaligerum  nihil  eft:  nec^Scaliger  ultra. 
lUe  tui  finem  repperit,  ille  fui. 

Grotii  Poemata,  Pag.  261. 

NOTE    XX.      Verse  401. 

'Jhe  liberal fpirlt  ofThuanus  rofe.]  James  Auguftus  De  Thou  was 
the  youngeft  ion  of  Chriftopher  De  Thou,  Firft  Prefident  of  the 
Parliament   of  Paris,  and  born  in  that  city,  1553.     His  own   Me- 
moirs give  a  pleafing  account  of  the  early  adlivity  of  his  mind. — 
As  his  health,  during  his  childhood,  was  fo  tender  and  infirm,  that 
his  parents  rather  retrained  him  from  the  ufual  ftudies  of  his  age, 
he  devoted  much  of  his   time  to  drawing,  and  copied  with  a  pen 
the  engravings  of  Albert  Durer,  before  he  was   ten  years  old.     At 
that  age  he  was  fettled  in  the  college  of  Burgundy  ;   but  this   plan 
of  his  education   was  foon   interrupted   by   a  fever,    in  which  his 
life   was  defpaired    of,    and  in  which   the    mother   of  his   future 
friend,  the  Duke  of  Montpenfier,  watched  him  with  an  attention 
lingularly  happy,  after  his  phyficians  and  his  parents  had  confidered 
him  as  dead.     In  a  few  years  after  his  recovery,  he  repaired  to  Or- 
leans to  ftiidy  the  civil  law  ;  from  thence  he  was  drawn  to  Valence 
in  Dauphiny,  by  the  reputation  of  Cujacius,  who  was  then  reading 
ledlares  there;  on  his  road  he  embraced  an  opportunity  of  hearing 
Hotoman,  the  celebrated  author  of  Franco-Gallia,  who  was  read- 
ing ledures  alfo  at  Bourges. During   his    refidence  at  Valence, 

he  contrafted  a  friendfliip  with  Jofeph  Scaliger,  wiiich  he  cultivated 
through  life. — In  1572,  his  father  recalled  him  to  Paris,  juft  be- 
fore the  maflacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. — He  mentions  in  his  Me- 
moirs the  horrors  which  he  felt  in  feeing  a  very  fmall  part  of  that 

bloody 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  151 

bloody  fcene. — He  refided  in  the  houfe  of  his  uncle  Nicholas  Be 
Thou,  promoted  to  the  bifhopric  of  Chartres  :  he  was  then  defigned 
himfelf  for  the  church;  and,  beginning  to .  colledl  his  celebrated 
library,  applied  himfelf  particularly  to  the  Civil  Law,  and  to  Gre- 
cian literature. 

He  travelled  into  Italy  in  1573,  with  Paul  De  Foix,  going  on  an 
embafly  to  the  Pope  and  the  Italian  Princes.  Of  De  Foix,  he  gives 
the  moil  engaging  charafter,  and  fpeaks  with  great  pleafure  of  the 
literary  entertainment  and  advantages  which  he  derived  from  this 
expedition. — He  returned  to  Paris,  and  devoted  himfelf  again  to 
his  fludies,  in  the  follo-vingyear. — On  the  dilTentions  in  the  Court 
of  France,  in  1576,  he  was  employed  to  negotiate  with  the  Marefchal 
Montmorency,  and  engage  him  to  interpofe  his  good  offices  to  pre- 
vent the  civil  war  j  which  he  for  fome  time  effedled. iThe  fame 

year  he  vifited  the  Low  Countries,  and  on  his  return  was  appointed 
to  a  public  office,  on  which  he  entered  with  that  extreme  diffidence 
which  is  fo  natural  to  a  delicate  mind. 

In  I  579  he  travelled  again,  with  his  elder  brother,  who  was  fent 
by  his  phyficians  to  the  baths  of  Plombieres  in  Lorrain  :  from 
hence  he  made  a  fhort  excurfion  into  Germany,  and  was  received 
there  with  the  jovial  hofpitality  of  that  country,  which  he  de- 
fcribes  in  a  very  lively  manner. — But  affeilion  foon  recalled  him  to 
Plombieres,  to  attend  his  infirm  brother  to  Paris,  who  died  there  in 
a  few  months  after  their  return. 

In  1580,  on  the  plague's  appearing  in  the  capital,  our  Hiftorian 
retired  into  Touraine>  and  after  vifiting  the  principal  places  in 
Normandy,  returned  to  Paris  in  the  winter. — In  the  following 
year,  he  was  of  the  number  chofen  from  the  Parliament  of  Paris 
to  adminifter  juftice  in  Guienne,  as  two  eccleliaftics  were  included 
in  that  commiffion. — In  this  expedition  he  embraced  every  oppor- 
tunity of  preparing  the  materials  of  his  Hiflory,  feeking,  as  he 
ever  did,  the  fociety  of  all  perfons  eminent  for  their  talents,  or 
capable  of  giving  him  any  ufeful  information.  He  fpeaks  with 
great  pleafure  of  a  vifit  which  he  paid  at  this  time  to  the  celebrated 

Montaigne, 


1^-2  NOTES      TO      THE 

Montaigne,   whom  he  calls  a  man  of  a  moft  liberal  mind,  and  to- 
tally uninfedled  with  the  fpirit  of  party. — After  various  excurfions, 
he  was  now  returning  to    Paris,  when  he  received  the  unexpedted 
news  of  his  father's  death,  an  event  which  affedted  him  moft  deeply, 
as  filial  affedlion  was  one  of  the  ftriking  charadleriftics  of  his  amia- 
ble mind. — He  confoled  himfelf  under  the  afflidion  of  having  been 
unable  to   pay  his  duty  to  his  dying  parent,  by  ereding  a  magnifi- 
cent monument  to  his  memory,  exprelfive  of  the  high  veneration 
in  which  he  ever  held  his   virtues. — He  engaged  again  in  public 
bufinefs,  devoting  his  intervals  of  leifure  to  mathematical  ftudies, 
and  to  the  compofition  of  Latin  verfe,  which  feems   to  have  been 
his  favourite  amufement.     In  1584,  he  publiflied  his  Poem,   de  re 
Accipitraria,  which,  though  much  celebrated  by  the  critics  of  his 
age,  has  fallen,  like  the  fubjedl   of  which  it  treats,  into  univerfal 

negledt. In  1585,  he  bid  adieu  to  the  Court,  on  finding  himfelf 

treated  with  fuch  a  degree  of  coldnefs,   as  his  ingenuous   nature 
could  not  fubmit  to;  and  being  eager  to  advance  in  his  great  work, 
which  he  had  already  brought  down  to  the  reign  of  Francis  II. — 
In    1587,   having    been  often    prefled  to   marry  by  his  family,  and 
being  abfolved  from  his  ecclefiaftical  engagements  for  that  ^urpofe, 
he  made  choice  of  Marie  Barbanfon,   of  an   antient   and  noble   fa- 
mily;  but  as  her  parents   were   fufpecfled  of  a  fecret  inclination  to 
the  reformed  religion,   it   was   thought  proper  that  the  lady  (hould 
undergo  a  kind  of  expiation  in  a  private  conference  with  two  Ca- 
thplic  Divines;  a  circutnftance  of  which  the  great  Hiftorian  fpeaks 
with  an  air  of  triumph  in  his  Memoirs,  as  a  proof  of  his  own  in- 
violable attachment  to  the  faith  of  his  fathers.      In   1588,  he  loft 
his  affectionate  mother ;  who  is  defcribed,   by  her  fon,  as  meeting 
death  with  the  fame  gentlenefs  and  tranquillity  of  mind,   by  which 
her  life  was  diftinguilhed.     When  the  violence  of  the  league  had 
reduced  Henry  the  Hid  to  abandon  Paris,  our  Hiftorian  was  fent 
into  Normandy  to  confirm  the  magiftrates  of  that  province  in  their 
adherence  to  the  King. — He  afterwards  met   Henry  at  Blois,  and 
while  he  was  receiving  from  him  in  private   fome   commiflions   to 

execute 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  jr. 

execute  at  Paris,  the  King  prefled  his  hand,  and  feemed  preparing 
tt!"irnpart  to  hiin  Tome  important  lecreL;   but  after  a  long  paufedif- 
miffed  him  without  revealing  it.— This  fccret   was  afterwards  fup- 
pofed  to  have  been  the  ptojeded  affafiination  of  the  Duke  of  Guife  : 
the  fuppofition  is  probable,  and  it  is  alfo  probable,  that  if  Henry- 
had  then  revealed  his    defign,  the  manly  virtue  and  eloquence  of 
DeThou  might  have  led  him  to  relinquifh  that  infamous  and   fatal 
meafure.— He  vyas,  however,  fo   far  from  fufpeding  the  intended 
crime  of  the  King,   that  when  he  firft  heard   at  Paris,  that  Guife 
was  affaffinated,  he  believed  it  a  falfe  rumour,  only  fpread  by  that 
fadtion,    to  introduce,  what   he  fuppofed  had  really  happened,   the 
murder  of  the  King. — In  the  commotions  which  the  death  of  Guife 
produced  in  Paris,    many  infults  were  offered  to  the  family  of  De 
Thou  :  his    wife  was   imprifoned  for  a  day  in  the  Baftile  ;   but  ob- 
taining her  liberty,   fhe  efcaped  from  the  city  in  a  mean  habit,   at- 
tended by  her  hufband,  difguifed  alfo  in  the  drefs  of  a  foldier.      Hav- 
ing fent  his  wife    in   fafety  into   Picardy,.he  repaired  to  the  King, 
who  was  almoft  deferted,  at  Blois  j   and  was  greatly  inflrumental  in 

perfuading  his  mafter  to  his  coalition  with  Henry  of  Navarre. 

The'  King  determined  to  eftablifh  a  Parliament  at  Tours,  and  De 
Thou  was  confidered  as  the  mofl  proper  perfon  to  be  the  Prefident 
of  this  affembly;  but  with  his  ufual  modefty  he  declined  this 
honour,  and  chofe  rather  to  engage  with  his  friend  Mr.  de  Schom- 
berg,  in  an  expedition  to  Germany  for  the  fervice  of  the  King. — 
He  was  at  firft  defigned  for  the  embaffy  to  Elizabeth,  but  at  the 
requeft  of  Scho-mberg  declined  the  appointment,  and  accompanied 
his  friend. 

He  hrft  received  intelligence  of  the  King's  death  at  Venice, 
where  he  had  formed  an  intimacy  with  the  celebrated  Arnauld 
d'Offat,  at  that  time  Secretary  to  the  Cardinal  Joyeufe. — In  con- 
fequence  of  their  converfation  on  this  event,  and  the  calamities  of 
France,  De  Thou  addreffed  a  Latin  Poem  to  his  friend,  which  he 
afterwards  printed  at  Tours. 

In  leaving  Italy,  hepaffed  a  few  days  at  Padua,  with  his  friend 

X  Vicenzio 


^54  NOTES      T  O      T  H  E 

Vicenzio  Pinelli ;  from  whom  he  colledled  many  particulars  con- 
cerning the  mofl  eminent  Italian  and  Spanifli  Authors,  whom  he 
determined  to  celebrate  in  his  Hiftory,  in  the  hope,  as  he  honeftly 
confefTes,  that  his  liberal  attention  to  foreign  merit  might  entitle 
his  own  Works  to  the  favour  both  of  Italy  and  Spain  ;  but  he  was 
difappointed  in  this  fair  expeftation,  and  laments  the  ingratitude 
which  he  experienced  from  both. 

On  his  return  to  France,  he  was  gracioufly  received  by  Henry 
the  IVth  J  and  in  giving  that  Prince  an  account  of  Italy,  fuggefted 
to  him  the  idea  of  a  connexion  with  Mary  of  Medicis.  After  the 
battle  of  Ivry,  he  complimented  the  King  in  a  (hort  Poem,  which 
clofes  with  the  following  lines  t. 

Aufpiciis  vulgo  peraguntur  praelia  regum, 

Perque  duces  illis  gloria  multa  venit : 
Tu  vincis  virtute  tua,  nee  militis  hasc  eft; 

Ifta  tibi  propria  laurea  parta  manu. 

As  he  was  travelling,  foon  afterwards,  with  his  wife  and  family, 
which  he  defigned  to  fettle  at  Tours,  his  party  was  intercepted  by 
the  enemy,  and  he  was  obliged  to  abandon  his  wife  and  her  atten- 
dants, being  prevailed  on  by  their  intreaties  to  fecure  his  own 
efcape  by  the  fwiftnefs  of  his  horfe. — He  repaired  to  the  King  at 
Gifors,  and  foon  obtained  the  reftitution  of  his  family. — On  the 
death  of  Amyot,  Bifhop  of  Auxerre,  well  known  by  his  various 
Tranflations  from  the  Greek  language,  the  King  appointed  De  Thou 
his  Principal  Librarian.  In  1592,  our  Hiftorian  was  very  near 
falling  a  vidim  to  the  plague,  but  happily  ftruggled  through  that 
dan -serous  diftcmper  by  the  afliftance  of  two  fkilful  phyficians,  who 
attended  him  at  Tours. — In  1593,  he  began  the  moft  important 
part  of  his  Hiftory  j  and  under  this  year  he  introduces  in  his  Me- 
moirs a  long  and  fpirited  Poem  addrefled  to  Pofterity,  in  which  he 
enters  into  a  juftification  of  himfelf  againft  the  malignant  attacks, 
x'C'hich  the  manly  and  virtuous  freedom  of  his  writings  had  drawn 
Q  upon 


SECOND      EPISTLE. 


155 


upon  him.     It  concludes  with  the  following  animated  appeal  to  the 
fjpirit  of  his  father : 

Vos  O  majorum  Cineres,  teque  optime  longis 
Soliciti  genitor  defiindte  laboribus  xvi, 
Teftor,  pro  patria  nullas  regnique  falute 
Vitaviffe  vices,  vellra  virtute  meaque 
:-  Indignum  nil  fecifTe,  et  fi  fata  tuliffent, 

Prodeflem  ut  patriae,  patris  fuccurrere,  livor 
Abfiflat,  pietate  mea  meruifle  petenti. 
Pura  ad  vos  anima  atque  hodiern£e  nefcia  culpse 
Defcendam,  quandoque  noviffima  venerit  hora, 
Noflraque  fub  tacitos  ibit  fama  Integra  manes. 

In  1594,  he  fucceeded  his  uncle  Auguftin  as  Prefident  a  Mor- 
tier. — In  1596,  he  loft  his  valuable  and  learned  friend  Pithou,  who 
firft  folicited  him  to  undertake  his  Hiftory,  and  had  greatly  affifted 
him  in  the  profecution  of  that  laborious  work. — How  deeply  the 
affedlionate  mind  of  De  Thou  was  wounded  by  this  event,  appears 
from  his  long  letter  to  Cafaubonon  theoccafion. — In  1597,  he  be- 
gan to  be  engaged  in  thofe  negotiations,  which  happily  terminated 
in  the  famous  edidl  of  Nantes. — It  may  be  proper  to  obferve  here, 
that  De  Thou  was  accufed  of  being  a  Calvinift,  in  confequence  of 
the  part  he  adled  in  this  bufinefs,  as  well  as  from  the  moderate 
tenor  of  his  Hiftory ;  and  it  is  remarkable,  that  Sully  feems  in  his 
Memoirs  to  countenance  the  accufation. 

In  1 60 1,  our  Hiftorian  fufFered  a  fevere  domeftic  afflidtion  in 
the  lofs  of  his  wife. — He  celebrated  her  virtues,  and  his  own  con- 
nubial affedion,  in  a  Latin  Poem :  with  this,  and  a  Greek  epitaph 
•on  the  fame  lady,  written  by  Cafaubon,  he  terminates  the  Com- 
mentary of  his  own  Life,  of  which  the   preceding  account  is  an 

imperfed  abridgment. His   firft  wife  leaving  him  no  children, 

he  married,  in  1603,  Gafparde  de  la  Chaftre,  an  accompliihed  lady 
of  a  noble  family;  who  having  brought  him  three  fons  and  three 

X  2  daughters. 


156  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  e" 

I     .mul  X. 
daughters,  died  at  th.-  age  of  39,   16 16. — There  is  a   fine  letter  of 

Daniel  Heinfius,  addreffed  to  our  author  on  this  occafion,  exhorting 
him  to  fortitude  :  hut  this  unexpcdled  domelHc  calamity,  and  the 
nnferies  which  befel  his  country  on  the  murder  of  Henry  the 
Great,  are  fiid  to  have  wounded  his  feeling  mind  fo  deeply,  as  to 
occafion  his  death,  which  happened  in  May  1617. — Under  the  re- 
gency of  Mary  of  Mcdicis,  he.had  been  one  of  the  Direftors  ge- 
neral of  the  finances,  maintaining  the  fime  reputation  for  integrity 
in  that  department,  \\hich  he  had  ever  prefcrved  in  his  judicial 
capacity. 

The  firft  part  of  his  Hiftory  appeared  in  1604,  with  a  Preface 
addrefi^ed  to  Henry  IV,  juflly  celebrated  for  its  liberal  and  manly 
fpirit. — But  I  muft  obferve,  that  the  following  compliment  to  the 
King — Quicquid  de  ea  ftatueris  jufTerifve,  pro  divinae  vocis  oraculo 
mihi  erit — was  more  than  even  that  moft  amiable  of  Monarchs  de- 
ferved,  as  he  ungratefully  deferted  the  caufe  of  our  Hiftorian,  in 
fuffering  his  Work  to  be  profcribed  by  the  public  cenfure  of  Rome 
in  1609,  as  De  Thou  plainly  intimates,  iiv the  following  pafTage 
from  one  ofhis  letters,  written  in  161 1 :- — Publicataprimaparte[Hif- 
lorias  mex]  immane  quam  commoti  funt  plerique,  five  invidi,  five 
fidliofi,  qui  mox  proceres  quofdam,  qui  per  fe  in  talibus  rebus  nihtl 
vident,  per  calumnias  artificiofe  confidas,  ut  fcis,  in  me  concita-. 
verunt,  remque  e  veAigio  Romam  detulerunt,  et  audlore  maligne 
cxagitato,  facile  pervicerunt,  ut  morofi  illi  cenfores  omnia  mea 
finiftre  interpretarcntur,  et  prjejudicio  perfons  opus  integrum, 
cujus  ne  tertiam  quidem  partem  legerant,  pra^cipitato  ordine 
damnarent.  Rex  caufam  meam  initio  quidem  tuebatur,  quamdia 
proceres  in  aula  infeflos  habui.  Sed  paulatim  ipfe  corundem  aftu 
infraftus  eft ;  cognitoque  Romce  per  eiruffarios  labare  regem,  poft 
OfiTati  et  Serafini  Cardinalium  mihi  amicilTimorum  obitum,  et  illuf- 
triflimi  Perronii  ex  urbe  difceffum,  idtus  poftremo  in  me  diredlus 
eft,  qui  facile  vitari  potuit,  fi  qui  circa  regem  erant,  tants  injurise 
fenfum  ad  fe  ac  regni  dignitatem  pertinere  vel  minima  fignificatione 
prse  fe  tuliffent.     Ita  in  aula  omni  ope  deftitutus,  facile  Romae  op- 

preflus 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  157 

prefTus  fum.— De  Thou  was  preparing  a  new  edition  of  his  Hif- 

tory  at  the  time  of  his  death.— His  pallion  for  Latin  verfe  appears 
never  to  have  forfaken  him,  as  the  lateft  effufion  of  his  pen  was  a 
little  poem  defcriptive  of  his  lalT:  illnefs,  and  an  epitaph  in  which 
he  draws  the  following  juft  charader  of  himfelf  : 

Mihi  veritatis  cura  vitse  commodis 

Antiquiorque  charitatibus  fuit, 

Nullique  fafto,  voce  nulli  injurius, 

Injurias  patienter  aliorum  tuli. 

Tu  quifquis  es,  qualifque,   quantufque,   O  bone. 

Si  cura  veri  eft  ulla,  fi  pietas  mover, 

A  me  meifque  Injuriam,  qusfo,   abftine. 

The  pious  paternal  prayer  in  the  laft  line  was  very  far  from 
being  crowned  with  fuccefs.  Francis,  the  eldeft  fon  of  De  Thou, 
fell  a  vidim  to  the  refentment  which  Cardinal  Richelieu  is  faid  to 
have  conceived  againft  him,  from  a  paflage  ia  the  great  Hiftorian, 
refleding  on  the  Richelieu  family. — He  was  beheaded  at  Lyons, 
1642,  for  having  been  privy  to  a  confpiracy  againft  the  Cardinal. 
—Voltaire,  with  his  ufual  philanthropy  and  fpirit,  inveighs  againft 
the  iniquity  of  this  execution,  in  his  Melanges,  torn,  iii.— The  cu- 
rious reader  may  find  a  particular  account  of  this  tragical  event  in 
the  laft  volume  of  that  noble  edition  of  Thuanus,  which  was  pub- 
liftied  under  the  aufpices  of  Dr.  Mead,  and  does  great  honour  to 
our  country. — I  fhall  clofe  this  Note  by  tranfcribing  from  it  the 
following  fpirited  epitaph  on  the  unfortunate  vidim. 

Hiftoriam  quifquis  vult  fcribere,  fcribere  veram 

Nunc  vetat  Exitium,  magne  Thuane,  tuum. 
Richeliae  ftirpis  proavos  Isfifte,   Paterni 

Crimen  erat  calami,  quo  tibi  vita  perit. 
Sanguine  delentur  nati  monumenta  parentis  : 

Quae  nomen  dederant  fcripta,  dedere  necem. 
Tanti  morte  viri  fic  eft  faricita  Tyrannis  : 

Vera  loqui  fi  vis,  difce  cruenta  pati. 

10  NOTE 


158  NOTESTOTHE 


NOTE    XXI.      Verse  474. 

T^hy  IViti,  0  France  !  fas  ev'n  thy  Critics  own) 

Support  not  Hijlory's  majejlic  tone.]  To  avoid  every  appearance  of 
national  prejudice,  I  fhall  quote  on  this  occafion  fome  pafTages  from 
a  very  liberal  French  Critic,  who  has  pafled  the  fame  judgment  on 
the  Hiftoriansof  his  country.  The  Marquis  d'Argenfon,  in  a  me-- 
moir  read  before  the  French  Academy,  1755,  not  only  confefles 
that  the  French  Writers  have  failed  in  Hiftory,  but  even  ventures 
to  explain  the  caufe  of  their  ill  fuccefs. 

Nous  avons,  fays  he,  quelques  morceaux,  ou  Ton  trouve  tout  a 
la  fois  la  fidelite,  le  gout,  et  le  vrai  ton  de  I'Hiftoire ;  mais  outre 
qu'ils  font  en  petit  nombre,  et  tres-courts,  les  auteurs,  a  qui  nous 
en  fommes  redevables,  fe  font  defie  de  leurs  forces  j  ils  ont  craint 
de  manquer  d'haleine  dans  des  ouvrages  de  plus  longue  etendue. 

Pourquoi  les  anciens  ont-ils  eu  des  Thucydides,  des  Xenophons, 
des  Polybes,  &  des  Tacites  ?  pourquoi  ne  pouvons  nous  leur  com- 
parer que  des  St.  Reals,  des  Vertots,  des  Sarrafins  ?  nous  ne  devons 
point  attribuer  cette  difette  a  la  decadence  de  I'Efprit  humain.  II 
faut  en  chercher,  fi  j'ofe  m'exprimer  ainfi,  quelque  raifon  nationale, 
quelque  caufe,  qui  foit  particuliere  aux  Francois 

Quatre  qualites  principales  font  ncceffaires  aux  Hiftoriens. 

1 .  Une  critique  exacfle  &  favante,  fondee  fur  des  recherches  la- 
borieufes,  pour  la  colledion  des  faits. 

2.  Une  grande  profondeur  en  morale  &  en  politique. 

3.  Une  imagination  fage,  &  fleurie,  qui  peigne  les  adlions,  qui 
deduife  les  caufes,  &  qui  prefente  les  reflexions  avec  clarte  6c  fim- 
plicite ;  quelquefois  avec  feu,  mais  toujours  avec  gout  &  ele- 
gance, 

4.  II  faut  de  plus  la  conftance  dans  le  travail,  un  flyle  egal  & 
foutenu,  &,  une  exadlitude  intatigable,  qui  ne  montre  jamais  I'im- 
patience  d'avancer,  ni  de  lallltude  pendant  le  cours  d'une  longue 
carriere, 

Qu'on 


SECOND      EPISTLE.  159 

Qu'on  fepare  ces  qualites,  on  trouvera  des  chef-d'oeiivres  parmi 
nous,  des  Critiques,  des  Moraliftes,  des  Politiques,  des  Peintres, 
&  des  literateurs  laborieux,  dont  le  produit  nous  furprend.  Mais 
qu'on  cherche  ces  qualites  rafTemblees,  on  manquera  d'exemples  a 

citer  entre  nos  Auteurs. The  Critic  then  takes  a  rapid  review  of 

the  French  Hiftorians,  and  proceeds  to  make  the  following  lively 
remarks  on  the  difficulty  of  writing  Hiftory  in  France,  and  the  vo- 
latile character  of  his  countrymen — J'ai  deja  prevenu  I'une  des  plus 
grandes  difficulte's  pour  les  auteurs ;  ils  devroient  etre  en  meme 
terns  hommes  de  cabinet  &  hommes  du  monde.  Par  I'etude  on  ne 
connoit  que  les  anciens,  &  les  moeurs  bourgeoifes;  &dans  la  bonne 
compagnie,  on  perd  fon  terns.  Ton  ecrit  peu,  et  Ton  penfe  encore 
moins 

L'haleine  manque  a  un  ecrlvain  Francois  faute  de  conftance  j  il 
cntrepend  legerement  de  grands  ouvrages,  il  les  continue  avec 
nonchalance,  il  les  finit  avec  dugout :  s'il  les  abandonne  quelque 
terns,  il  ne  les  reprend  plus,  &  nous  voyons  que  tous  nos  con- 
tinuateurs  ont  echoue.  La  lafiitude  du  foir  fe  reflent  de  I'ardeur 
du  matin.     C'eft  dela   qu'il  nous  arrive  de  n'avoir  de  bon,  que 

de   petits    morceaux,  foit  en    poefie,    folt   en    profe nous 

n'avons   que des  morceaux   Hiftoriques,  &  prefque  pas 

une  Hiftoire  generale  digne  de  louange. 

Choix  des  Memoires  de  1 'Academic,  &c. 
Londres,  1777,  ^°'^*  "^'  P*  ^27. 


END    OP    THE    NOTES    TO    THE    SECOND    EPISTLE. 

J 


NOTES 


i6o  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 


NO        T        E 


TO     T   H  £ 


THIRD        EPISTL    E. 


NOTE    I.     Verse  -,o 


:J^ 


^•' 


fND  JJjake  th*  affrighted  loorld  with  dire  portents. '\  There  is  a 
curious  treatife  of  Dr.  Warburton's  on  this  fubject,  which  is 
become  very  fcarcc;  it  is  entitled,  "  A  critical  and  philofophical  En- 
**  quiry  into  thecaufcs  of  prodigies  and  miracles,  as  related  by  Hifto- 
"  rians,  with  an  EiH^y  towards  reftoring  a  method  and  purity  in  Hif- 
*"  tory."  It  contains,  like  moft  of  the  compofitions  of  this  dogmatical 
Writer,  a  ftrange   mixture  of  judicious  criticifm  and  entertaining 
abfurdity,  in   a  ftyle  fo  extraordinary,  that  I  think  the  following 
fpecimens  of  it  may  amufe  a  reader,  who  has  not  happened  to  meet 
with  this  fingular  book. — Having  celebrated  Rawleigh  and  Hyde, 
as  writers  of  true  hiftoric  genius,   he  adds  :   "  almofl  all  the  reft  of 
otir  Hiftories  want  Life,   Soul,  Shape,  and  Body :  a  mere  hodge- 
podge of  abortive   embryos   and  rotten  carcafes,  kept  in  an  unna- 
tural ferment  (which  the  vulgar  miftake  for  real  life)   by  the  rank 
leven  of  prodigies  and  portents.     Which    can't  but  afford   good 
diverfion  to  the  Critic,  while  he  obferves  how  naturally  one  of  their 
own   fables  is   here  mythologiz'd  and  explain'd,  of  a  church-yard 
car  cafe,  ralfed  and  fet  a  fruiting  by  the  inflation  of  fofne  heliif  fuc- 
cubus  ivithin."     He  then   paffes  a  heavy  cenfure  on   the  antiqua- 
rian publications  of  Thomas  Hearne  ;  in  the  clofe  of  which  he  ex- 
claims— "  Wonder  not,  reader,  at  the  view  of  thefe  extravagancies. 
The  Hiftoric  Mufe,  after  much  vain  longing  for  a  vigorous  adorer, 
is  now  fallen  under  that  indifpofition  of  her  fex,  fo  well  known  by 
a  depraved  appetite  for  trafli  and  cinders." — Having  quoted   two 

pafl^iges 


THIRD      EPISTLE. 


16  £ 


paffages  from  this  fingukr  Critic,  in  which  his  metaphorical  lan- 
guage is  exceedingly  grofs,  candour  obliges  me  to  tranfcribe  ano- 
ther, whidi  is  no  lefs  remarkable  for  elegance  and  beauty  of  cx- 
preffion.  In  defcribing  Salluft,  at  one  time  the  loud  advocate  of 
public  fpirit,  and  afterwards  fharing  in  the  robberies  of  CtEfar,  he 

exprefTes  this  variation  of  charader  by  the  following   imao-ery  : 

"  No  fooner  did  the  warm  afpea  of  good  fortune  fhine  out  again, 
but  all  thofe  exalted  ideas  of  virtue  and  honour,  railed  like  a  beau- 
tiful kind  of  froft-work,  in  the  cold  feafon  ofadverfity,  diifolved 
^nd  difappeared." 

Enquiry,  Sec.  London,   1727,  page  17. 

NOTE    IL      Verse  51. 

On  F ranch  fiow  the  Gallic  page  is  mute. 

And  Britifii  Story  drops  the  name  of  Brute.]   T  he  origin  of  the 
French  nation  was  afcribed  by  one  of  the  Monkiili  Hiflorians  to 
Francio,  a  fon  of  Priam:  Mr.  Warton,  who  mentions  this  circum- 
fiance  in  his  DlfTertation  on  the  origin  of  romantic  fidion  in  Europe, 
fuppofes  that  the  revival  of  Virgil's  ^neid,  about  the  fixth  or  fe- 
venth  century,  infpired  many  nations  with  this  chimerical  idea  of 
tracing  their  defcent  from  the  family  of  Priam.      There  is  a  very 
remarkable  proof  in   the  Hiftorian  Matthew  of  Weftminiler,  how 
fond  the  Englifli  were  of  confidering  themfelves  as  the  defcendants 
of  the    Trojan  Brutus.     In   a  letter   from  Edward  the  Firfl   to 
Pope  Boniface,  concerning  the  affairs  of  Scotland,  the  King  boafts 
of  his  Trojan  predecefTor  in  the  following  terms  :~Sub  temporlbus 
itaque  Ely  &  Samuelis  prophetarum,  vir  quidam  flrenuus  et  infxo-nis, 
Brutus  nomine,  de  genere  Trojanorum,  poftexcidium  urbis  Trojanai 
cum  multis   nobilibus  Trojanorum  applicuit  in  quandam  Infulam 
tunc  Albion  vocatam,  a  gigantibus  inhabitatam,  quibus  fua  et  fuo- 
rum  feduftis  potentia  et  occifis,  earn  nomine  fuo  Britanniam  foci- 
ofque  fuos  Britannos  appellavit,  &  sdificavit  civitatem  quam  Tri- 
Jicvantum  nuncupavit,  quae  mode  Londinum  nuncupatur. 

Matt.  Westmon.  p.  439. 
Y  NOTE 


,6a  NOTES      TO      THE 

NOTE    III.      Verse    73. 

ylnd  Bacon  sfelf,  for  mental  glory  born. 

Meets,  as  her  Jlave,  our  pity,  or  our /corn."]  I  wifh  not  to  dwell 
invidioufly  on  the  failings  of  this  immortal  Genius ;  but  it  may  be 
ufeful  to   remark,  that   no  Hiftorical  work,  though  executed  by  a 
man  of  the  highefl  mental  abilities,  can  obtain  a  lafling  reputation, 
if  it  be  planned  and  written  with  a  fervility  of  fpirit. — This  was 
evidently  the  cafe  in  Bacon's  Hiftory  of  Henry  the  Vllth  :  it  was 
the  firft  work  he  engaged  in  after  his  difgrace,  and  laid  as  a  peace- 
offering  at  the  feet  of  his  maflcr,  the  defpicable  James,  who  aff'ecfled 
to  confider  his  great  grandfather,  the  abjedt  and  avaricious  Henry, 
as  the  model  of  a  King.     It  was  therefore  tlie  aim  of  the  unfortu- 
nate Hiftorian  to  flatter  this  phantafy  of  the  royal  pedant,  for  whom 
he  wrote,  and  he  accordingly  formed  a  coloflal   flatue  to  reprefcnt 
a  pigmy. — It  is  matter  of  aftonilliment  that  Lord  Bolingbroke,  who 
in  his  political  works  has  written  on  the  vices  of  this  very  King, 
with  a  force   and  beauty   fo  fuperior  to  the  Hiftory  in  quellion, 
Hiould  fpcak  of  it  as  a  v/ork  poffefTing  merit  fufficient  to  bear  a 
comparifon  with  the  antients  :  on  the  contrary,  the  extreme  awk- 
wardncfs  of  the  tafk,  which  the  Hiftorian   impofed   upon   himfelf, 
gave  a  weaknefs  and  embarralTment  to  his  flyle,  which  in  his  nobler 
works  is  clear,  nervous,  and  manly.     Tliis  will  particularly  ap- 
pear from  a  few  lines  in  his  charadter  of  Henry. — "  This  King,  to 
fpeak  of  him  in  terms  equal  to  his  deferving,  was  one  of  the  beft 
fort  of  wonders,  a  wonder  for  wife  men.     He  had  parts,  both  in 
his  virtues  and  his  fortune,  not  fo  fit  for  a  common-place  as  for 
obfervation  ....  His  worth  may  bear  a  tale  or  two,   that  may  put 
upon  him   fomewhat,   that  may  feem  divine."— He  then  relates  a 
dream  of  Henry's  mother,  the  Lady  Margaret :  but    the  quotations 
I   have  made   may    be    fufficient    to  juftify    my  remark;  and,  as 
Dr.  Johnfon    fays   happily    of  Milton,    "  What  Englifhman  can 
take  delight  in  tranfcribing  paflages,  which,   if  they  leflen  the  re- 
putation of  Bacon,  diminilh  in    fome   degree  the  honour  of  our 
country  ?" 

6  NOTE 


T  H  I  R  P      EPISTLE.  363 

NOTE    IV.      Verse  92. 

Afid  of  that  jnoiintain  7nake  thejlatiie  of  a  King,']  An  allufion  to 
the  Archited  Dinocrates,  who  offered  to  cut  Mount  Athos  into  a 
ftatue  of  Alexander  the  Great. 


NOTE    V.      Verse  97. 

As  croiDjid  with  Indian  laurels,  nobly  ivon,  Gfr.]  This  ftory  Ts 
told  on  a  fimilar  occafion  by  Lucian.  Having  afferted  that  hiftori- 
cal  flatterers  often  meet  with  the  indignation  they  deferve,  he  pro- 
ceeds to  this  example :  {^.i^in^  ApigcCa^ov  y.0Ki}.axio(.v  yfin-lcLVTOQ  AAj^iXvo/ja 
V-CLi  IIwpcUj  v-c^.i  civayvQvroQ  cVotlh  tuto  (xd'hiqca  ro  %wp/ov  tvjc  y^cf.<^viC 
(w5T0  yap  xxpisicr^xi  ra  ixsyigx  rw  C^ciuiKsi,  €7ri4'S'ohixsvo<:  upigsicc  rivac 
avTKt  aoii  civxrMTTW  spyx  ixsi^u  T^i  aM^stcic)  }\xS(av  easivoi  to  (^iZkiov 
{rrKsovTsc  d'  sroyx^vov  sv  tco  Troraixa  tw  J^ciaTra)  sppi^sv  S7ti  Ke(^cL\v^v  es  to 
uJwp,  smTrijW  "  Kix,i  ffs  ^s  cvtw  s^P^^'  "  Apu^cQsKs,  toicvtcc  VTrap  eixa 
(lovo^xxx^''''^'^*  ^^'  f?i£$WT(Xf  ev  siKO'jTia  (pcvcvcvrcc." 

Lucian.  Edit.  Riollay,  p,  28. 
The  Critics  are  much  divided  on  this  paflage  :   I  have  followed 
an  interpretation  very  different  from  that  adopted  by  a  learned  and 
judicious  author,  who  has  lately  entered  into  a  thorough  difcuffion 
of  all  the  anecdotes  relating  to  this  celebrated  Conqueror,  in  a  very 
elaborate  and  fpirited  differtation,  entitled,    **  Examen  critique  des 
Hiftoriens  d'Alexandre,"  Paris,   4to,    1775.     But    there   is   great 
probability  in   his   conjecture,    that  the  name  of  AriflobuUis   has; 
iilipt  into  the  ftory  by  fome  miftake  j  and  that  the  fycophant  To 
juftly  reprimanded  was  Oncficritus,  who  attended  the  hero  of  Ma- 
ccdon  in  quality  of  Hifloriographer,  and  is  cenfured  by  the  judi- 
cious Strabo  as  the  moll   fabulous  of  all  the  Writers  who  have 
engaged  in  his  Hifrory.     For  the  reafons  whicli  fupport  this  con- 
jcdure,  fee  the  book  I  have  mentioned,  page  19, 


Y    2  NOTE 


i64  NOTES      TO      THE 

NOTE    VI.      Verse   115. 

In  Dedications  quietly  inurnd, 

They  take  more  lying  Praife  than  Amnion  fpiirn  d.^  As  Hiftory  is 
the  compofition  moll  frequently  add refled  to  Princes,  modern  Hif- 
torians  have  been  peculiarly  tempted  to  this  kind  of  adulation.— 
Indeed  Dedications  in  general  are  but  top  commonly  a  difgrace  to 
letters.  Perhaps  a  concife  Hiftory  of  this  fpecies  of  writing,  and 
the  fate  of  fome  remarkable  Dedicators,  might  have  a  good  influence 
towards  corredling  that  proftitution  of  talents,  which  is  fo  often 
obferved  in  produdtions  of  this  nature  ;  and  fuch  a  work  might  be 
very  amufing  to  the  lovers  of  literary  anecdote. — 'The  two  mofl:  un- 
fortunate Dedications  that  occur  to  my  remembrance,  were  written 
by  JoOiua  Barnes,  and  Dr.  Pearce,  late  Bifliop  of  Rochefter :  The 
firft  dedicated  his  Hillory  of  Edward  the  Illd,  to  James  the  lid, 
and  unluckily  compared  that  Monarch  to  the  mofl  valiant  of  his 
predeceflbrs,  juft  before  his  timidity  led  him  to  abdicate  the  throne  : 
the  fecond  dedicated  his  edition  of  Tully  de  Oratore  to  Lord  Mac- 
clesfield, and  as  unluckily  celebrated  his  patron  as  a  model  of  pub- 
lic virtue,  not  many  years  before  he  was  impeached  in  parliament, 
and  fined  ^,  30,000  for  the  iniquity  of  his  condudt  in  the  office  of 
Chancellor.    * 

NOTE  VII.      Verse  135. 

Still  can  Herrera,  mourning  oer^  his  urn, 

Ihs  dying  pangs  to  blifsful  rapture  turn.'\  Antonio  de  Herrera,  a 
Soanifh  Hillorian  of  great  reputation,  defcribes  the  death  of  Phi- 
lip II.  in  the  following  terms  : — •*  Y  fue  cofa  de  notar,  que  aviendo 
dos,  o  trcs  horas  antes  que  efplrallc,  tenido  un  par.  xifmo  tan 
violento,  que  le  tuvieron  por  acabado,  cubriendole  el  roflro  con 
un  panno,  abrio  los  ojos  con  gran  efpiritu,  y  tomo  cl  crucifixo  de 
mano  de  Don  Hernando  de  Toledo,  y  con  gran  devocion,  y  tcrnura 
le  beso  muchas  vozes,  y  a  la  imagen  de  nueftra  Scnnora  dc  Mon- 
ferrate,  que  eftava  en  la  candela.  Parecib  al  Argobifpo  de  To- 
ledo, a   los  confclTorcs,  y    a  quantos    fe  hallaron   prefeiitcs,  que 

era 


THIRD      EPISTLE.  165 

era  ImpofTible,  que  naturalmente  huvieffe  podldo  bolver  tan  prefto, 
y  con  tan  vivo  ef^irltu,  fino  que  devio  de  tener  en  aquel  puato 
alguna  vifion  y  favor  del  cielo,  y  que  mas  fue  rapto  que  paraxif- 
mo :  luego  bolv^o  al  agonia,  y  fe  fue  acabando  poco  a  poco,  y 
con  pequenno  movimiento  fe  le  arranco  el  alma,  domingo  a  treze 
de  Setiembre  a  las  cinco  horas  de  la  mannana,  fiendo  fas  ultimas 
palabras,  que  moria  como  Catolico  en  la  Fe  y  obediencia  de  la 
fanta  Iglefia  Romana ;  y  afTi  acabo  efte  gran  Monarca  con  la  mifma 
prudencia  con  que  vivio  :  por  lo  qual  (meritamente)  fe  le  dio  el 
atributo  de  prudente. 

Hift.  General  del  Mundo,  por  Ant.  Herrera,  Madrid  1612. 

Tom.  iii.  f.  777. 
After  fpeaking  fo  freely  on  the  vices  of  this  Monarch,  it  is  but 
juft  to  obferve,  that  Philip,  who  pofleffed  all  the  fedate  cruelty 
of  the  cold-blooded  Odtavius,  refembled  him  alfo  in  one  amiable 
quality,  and  was  fo  much  a  friend  to  letters,  that  his  reign  may  be 
confidtred  as  the  Auguftan  age  of  Spanilh  literature. — His  moil 
bloody  minifter,  the  mercilefs  Alva,  was  the  Mscenas  of  that  won- 
derful and  voluminous  Poet,  Lope  de  Vega.  I  cannot  help  re- 
gretting that  the  two  eminent  Writers,  who  have  lately  delineated 
the  reigns  of  Charles  the  Vth,  and  his  Son  Philip,  fo  happily  in 
our  language,  have  entered  fo  little  into  the  literary  Hiftoiy  of  • 
thofe  times. 

NOTE    VIIL      Verse   158; 

Nor  hope  tojiain,  on  bafe  DetraSlion  s  fcroll, 

ATiilIys  morals,  or  a  Sidney  s  foul!']  Dion  Caffius,  the  fordid 
advocate  of  defpotifm,  endeavoured  to  depreciate  the  charad:er  of 
Cicero,  by  inferting  in  his  Hiftory  the  moft  indecent  Oration  that 
ever  difgraced  the  page  of  an  Hiflorian. — In  the  opening  of  his 
46th  book,  he  introduces  Q^  Fulius  Calenus  haranguing  the  Ro- 
man fenate  againft  the  great  ornament  of  that  aflembly,  calling  Ci- 
cero a  magician,  and  accufing  him  of  proftituting  his  wife,  and 
committing  inceft  with  his  daughter.  Some  late  hiftorical  attempts 
to  fink  the  reputation  of  the  great  Algernon  Sidney,  are  fo  recent, 
that  they  will  occur  to  the  remembrance  of  almoft  every  Reader. 
10  .NOTE 


i66  N  O  T  E  S      T  O      T  H  E 


N  O  T  E    IX.      Verse  179. 

Nor  hfs  the  blemlp,  tho  of  different  kind, 

Fromfalji  Philofophy's  conceits  refmdl  &c.]  The  ideas  in  this  paf- 
fagc  are  chiefly  borrowed  from  the  excellent  oblervations  on  Hiftory 
in  Dr.  Gregory's  Comparative  View.  As  that  engaging  little  volume 
is  fo  generally  known,  I  Ihnll  not  lengthen  thcfe  Notes  by  tran- 
fcribing  any  part  of  it ;  but  I  thought  it  juft  to  acknowledge  my 
obligations  to  an  Author,  whofe  fentiments  I  am  proud  to  adopt, 
as  he  united  the  nobleft  affedlions  of  the  heart  to  great  elegance 
of  mind,  and  is  juftly  ranked  among  the  moft  amiable  of  moral 
writers. 

NOTE    X.      Verse  218. 

51?  [peak  no  Falfehood;  and  no  'Truth  fupprefs.^  Qil^s  nefcit,  primani 
efle  Hifloriaj  legem  ne  quid  falfi  dicere  audeat  ?  deinde,  ne  quid 
verinon  audeat.  De  Oratore,  Lib.  ii. 

Voltaire  has  made  a  few  juft  remarks  on  the  fecond  part  of  this 
famous  Hiftorical  maxim  ;  and  it  certainly  is  to  be  underftood  with 
fome  degree  of  limitation.  The  fentence  of  the  amiable  Pliny,  fo 
often  quoted — Hiftoria  quoquo  modo  fcriptk  deledlat — is  liable,  I 
apprehend,  to  flill  more  objections. 

NOTE    XI.      Verse  266. 

A  li'djle  of  Genius  in  the  toilo/KnoIles.']  Richard  ICnolles,  a  native 
of  Northamptonfliire,  educated  at  Oxford,  publiflied,  in  1610, 
a  Hiftory  of  the  Turk?.  An  Author  of  our  age,  to  whom  both 
criticifm  and  morality  have  very  high  obligations,  has  beftowed  a 
liberal  encomium  on  this  neglcded  Hiftorian ;  whofe  charadlcr  he 
clofes  with  the  following  juft  obfervation  : 

**  Nothing  could  have  funk  this  Author  in  obfcurity,  but  the 
remotenefs  and  barbarity  of  the  people  whofe  ftory  he  relates.  It 
feldom  happens,  that  all  circumftanccs  concur  to  happinefs  or 
fame.  The  nation  which  produced  this  great  Hiftorian,  has  the 
gncf  of  feeing  his  genius  employed  upon  a  foreign  and  unintcrefting 

fubjedt; 


THIRD      EPISTLE.  167 

fubjedt ;  and  that  Writer,  who  might  have  fecured  perpetuity  to  his 
name,  by  a  Hiftory  of  his  own  country,  has  expofed  himfelf  to  the 
danger  of  oblivion,  by  recounting  enterprizes  and  revolutions,  of 
which  none  defire  to  be  informed." 

Rambler,  Vol.  III.  N"  122. 

NOTE    XII.      Verse  330. 

And  read  your  juji  reward  m  Brady  s  fate  !]  Robert  Brady,  born 
in  Norfolk,  was  ProfefTor  of  Phyfic  in  the  Univerfity  of  Cam- 
bridge, which  he  reprefented  in  Parliament. — He  was  Mafler  of 
Caius  College,  and  Phyfician  inordinary  to  James  II.  He  publifhed, 
in  1684,  a  Hiftory  of  England,  from  the  invafion  of  Julius  Csfar 
to  the  death  of  Richard  the  Second,  in  three  volumes  folio:  and 
died  in  1700.— His  charadler  cannot  be  more  juftly  or  more  forcibly 
exprelTed,  than  in  the  words  of  a  living  Author,  who  has  lately 
vindicated  the  antient  conftitution  of  our  country  with  great  depth 
of  learning,   and  with  all    the    energy   of    genius    infpirited   by 

freedom. 

"Of  Dr.  Brady  it  ought  to  be  remembered,  that  he  was  the 
Have  of  a  fadion,  and  that  he  meanly  proftituted  an  excellent  un- 
derftanding,  and  admirable  quicknefs,  to  vindicate  tyranny,  and  to 
deftroy  the  rights  of  his  nation." 

Stuart's  View  of  Society  in  Europe. 
Notes,  page  327. 

NOTE    Xni.      Verse  381. 

Like  the  dumb  Son  of  Crcefus,  in  the  Jirife.]  Herodotus  relates, 
that  a  Perfian  foldier,  in  the  ftorming  of  Sardis,  was  preparing  to 
killCroefus,  whofe  perfon  he  did  not  know,  and  who,,  giving  up  all 
as  loft,  negleded  to  defend  his  own  life ;  a  fon  of  the  unfortunate 
Monarch, -who  had  been  dumb  from  his  infancy,  and  who  never 
fpake  afterward?,  found  utterance  in  that  trying  moment,  and  pre- 
ferved  his  father,  by  exclaiming  "  O  kill  not  Crcefus." 

NOTE 


i68  NOTES,    &c. 

NOTE    XIV.      Verse  387. 

Lejs  eager  to  corrcB^-  than  to  revi/e.]  This  is  perhaps  a  jufl  de- 
fcription  of  T/je  polemical  Divine,  as  a  general  charafter  :  but  there 
are  fome  authors  of  that  clafs,  to  whom  it  can  never  be  applied. 

Dr.  V/atfon,  in  particular,  will  be  ever  mentioned  with  honour, 

as  one  of  the  happy  few,  who  have  preferved  the  purity  of  juftice 
and  good  manners  in  a  zealous  defence  of  religion  ;  who  have  given 
elegance  and  fpirit  to  controverfial  writing,  by  that  liberal  eleva- 
tion of  mind,  which  is  equally  removed  from  the  meannefs  of  flat- 
h:ry  and  the  infolence  of  detraction. 

NOTE    XV.      Verse  393. 

I'he  noble  irijiiii5f ,   Love  of  Icjling   Fame.]  There  is  a  moll  ani- 
mated and  judicious  defence  of  this  paflion  in  Fitzofborne's  Let- 
ters.— But  I  muft  content  myfelf  with  barely   referring  my  Rea- 
der to  that  amiable  Moralift,    as   I   fear  I  have  already  extended 
thefe  Notes    to  fuch   a  length,  as   will   expofe  me    to    the  feve- 
lity   of  criticifm.     Indeed  I  tremble  in  reviewing  the  fize  of  this 
Comment :    which  I    cannot   clofe   without   entreating  my    Rea- 
der to    believe,  that   its   bulk  has  arifen  from  no  vain  ideas    of 
the   value  of    my  own   Poem,   but  from  a  defire  to  throw  col- 
ledted  light  on  a  fubjedl,  which   appeared  to  me  of  importance, 
and  to  do  all   thejuftice  in  my  power   to   many  valuable   writers, 
whom  I    wiflied  to  celebrate. — Thofe   who    arc  inclined   to  cen- 
fure,  will  perhaps    think    this  apology   infufficient ;  and   I    forclee 
that  fome  hafty    Critics  will    compare  the   length  of  the   Poem 
with  that  of  the  Annotations,  and  then  laying   down    the  book 
without    perufing   either,    they   will    apply    perhaps    (not   unhap- 
pily) to  the  Author  the  following  lively  couplet  of  Dr.  Young: 

Sure,  next  to  writing,  the  moft  idle  thing 
Is  gravely  to  harangue  on  what  we  fing. 

FINIS. 


<fS-S^^^